Nishi apartment building in Canberra ordered to pay compensation over defect
Rayne de Gruchy spent $1.5 million on an apartment in a building which creaked so loudly she couldn’t sleep and was forced to move out.
Canberra Star
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A resident at Canberra’s swanky Nishi apartment building has been awarded more than $20,000 in compensation over “unbearable” structual cracks the defective building makes — noises she compared to cannon fire.
Rayne de Gruchy in 2014 purchased a two-storey apartment in the New Acton building, but was forced to move out after the creaking, cracking, booming and shuddering noises left her unable to sleep.
Ms de Gruchy sued the building’s body corporate for nuisance, claiming the noise, which came from the building’s common property, amount forced her to move out.
The noises, Ms de Gruchy said, were loud enough to wake a sleeping person, as frequently as every six minutes.
She said the body corporate — which neither designed nor built the apartment block — was responsible for the noise, and for paying her compensation, because it had not done anything to deal with the problem.
ACT Supreme Court Associate Justice Verity McWilliam found there “was, and continues to be, a nuisance in the form of structure-borne noise heard in the plaintiff’s apartment, which was substantial enough to constitute an unreasonable interference with the plaintiff’s enjoyment of the apartment, or her rights in connection with the apartment”.
Structural engineers hired to track down the source of the noise found it was a result of the building expanding and contracting as it heated and cooled throughout the day.
Ms de Gruchy gave evidence the noise could be “very loud bark like a crack or a gunshot”.
At other times, she said, there was a “reverberation of sound, like a shudder, followed by a sound like the cracking of plaster”.
She also said the noise could be “like a cannon firing”.
A tenant who Ms de Gruchy rented her apartment to after moving out wrote in a complaint that he was “pretty well sleep-deprived for the majority of the time” he lived there.
Other residents also lodged complaints, including Ms de Gruchy’s neighbour, who wrote to the body corporate saying: “Our neighbours literally abandoned their $1.5 million property because the issue was so distressing”.
Justice McWilliam, who listened to a recording of the noises, said: “there is no doubt that they would disturb more than just the light sleepers and insomniacs of Canberra”.
“The evidence is overwhelming that the noise constitutes a significant interference, beyond what would be considered reasonable …” Justice McWilliam said.
“All indications are that the noise will continue at its current level and frequency unless substantial remediation works are undertaken.”
The body corporate, years after the first complaint, voted to adopt a “do nothing” approach.
Justice McWilliam ordered the body corporate pay Ms de Gruchy $24,329 to cover moving costs, custom-made ear plugs, damages and interest.
She also ordered the body corporate to take measures to stop the structural noises entering Ms de Gruchy’s apartment at nuisance levels.