Victorian Building Authority set to check hundreds more towers for fire risk

HUNDREDS of Melbourne apartment owners could face hefty repair bills if their buildings are found to have been built with non-compliant cladding like in a Docklands building.

The fire damaged apartment complex 'Lacrosse' at 675 La Trobe Street, Docklands. Apartment owners may be facing the fire damage repair costs. Picture: Steve Tanner

HUNDREDS more Melbourne buildings could be checked for fire risk after an initial audit found that half of those surveyed did not comply with safety regulations involving external cladding.

Industry watchdog the Victorian Building Authority ordered the review in the wake of the 2014 Lacrosse apartment tower fire in Docklands.

Lacrosse was built with non-compliant cladding from China and more than 400 owners face paying rectification works in the millions of dollars.

VBA chief executive Prue Digby said yesterday that the audit of 170 high-rise buildings in the inner city had found 51 per cent to be non-compliant — an unacceptably high figure.

“However, working with its regulatory partners ... it was determined that the buildings’ noncompliance did not pose a risk to the safety of occupants,” she said.

“Only one other building, the Harvest Apartments in Clarendon St, South Melbourne, required immediate emergency action.”

All buildings, including Lacrosse and Harvest, continue to be occupied.

The VBA will now launch another audit, possibly involving hundreds more towers, to include other buildings of practitioners identified with significant noncompliance, as well as buildings outside the scope of the initial audit.

Ms Digby said that the noncompliance found was linked to decisions made by different practitioners at different stages of the building process.

“The problem is the way people understand the requirements of the (national building code) and the number of people who have a misunderstanding or not a complete understanding ... and that’s builders designers, engineers, building surveyors,” she said.

Ms Digby defended the VBA from the claim that, as building regulator, the authority should have been on top of the noncompliance issue before the audit.

“It’s not as though the role of the regulator is to go and inspect every building that’s built in the state to ensure that every aspect of it is compliant at the time that it goes up,” she said.

“That’s not the way the regulatory system works or the whole system ... would grind to a halt.”

The VBA’s separate investigation into the conduct of those involved in the Lacrosse construction is continuing.

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Originally published as Victorian Building Authority set to check hundreds more towers for fire risk