Lavender Bay: Bardia Housman, Yolenda Camuglia in building stoush
A neighbourly dispute between a tech pioneer and his neighbour in an exclusive harbourside suburb has ended up in court with the latter claiming the former’s works caused part of her home to collapse.
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The founder of Australia’s first free email service has been ordered to pay more than $200,000 after construction works at his waterfront home damaged a neighbouring property on Sydney’s lower north shore.
Lavender Bay resident Yolenda Camuglia launched legal action against her neighbour Bardia Housman and building contractor Pacific Plus due to impacts from building alterations and a new sea wall at Mr Housman’s home from 2017 to 2019.
Details of the long-running dispute played out in the NSW District Court. It was heard excavation works involving hammering equipment at Ms Housman’s Bay View St home resulted in the foundations of a stairway at Ms Camuglia’s property to “collapse” along with damage to her concrete tiles.
Ms Camuglia told the court she had rented out the six-unit property before the construction works commenced, but had been unable to lease the home except for one unit, occupied by her son, due to the “safety issues” resulting from the damage.
Mr Housman – the founder of email service start.com.au – accepted damage was caused to stairs and paving, but rejected claims by Ms Camuglia that works resulted in her balcony to “crack away” from the rest of the home.
Lawyers for Mr Housman also pointed out Ms Camuglia lodged a development application to North Sydney Council to turn the property into a six storey home in 2019 and therefore the stairs were “destined for demolition”.
The court heard the property had been leased for a total of $3489 a week until 2018, however the rent would have been dropped to $2327 during construction works to “reflect the loss of amenity”.
Lawyers for Mr Housman questioned the amount of damages sought on the grounds it was “not commercially realistic” all six units would have been rented throughout a full calendar year.
In handing down his judgment, judge Robert Weber determined Ms Camuglia was entitled to $1926.96 per week for lost rental income, equating to $157,240 over the 102 week period.
Mr Weber also ordered Mr Housman and Pacific Plus to pay $61,361.71 in rectification works for the damage caused to Ms Camuglia’s home.
The decision comes as Yolenda Camuglia also won a separate Land and Environment Court challenge last week to carry out the redevelopment project proposed for her home in 2019.
The application had previously been rejected by North Sydney Council and prompted a string of submissions from nearby residents objecting to the height of the building and loss of views.