Cladding crisis: Owners in dispute with company of ‘viral’ developer Jean Nassif over cladding fears

The company owned by flamboyant property developer Jean Nassif, Toplace Construction has been pulled into a dispute with residents of a western Sydney apartment block over combustible cladding fears.

• Jean Nassif and wife lampooned on social media
• Hundreds buildings with flammable cladding

Exclusive: Devastated residents have revealed their shock at discovering their three-year-old Parramatta unit tower may have been built with flammable cladding.

The 28-storey Parramatta Rise Apartments building was finished in late 2015 by Toplace­ Construction, the company owned by devel­oper Jean Nassif, who ­became an online media sensation­ earlier this year after posting a video in which he gave his socialite wife, Nissy, a $480,000 yellow Lamborghini.

A spokesman for the company and Mr Nassif first confirmed parts of the building were clad in aluminium with a polyurethane core.

However, the spokesman later retracted his statement the cladding was a combustible combination of aluminium and polyurethane.

“We can (say they are) aluminium composite panels. That may mean in some cases polyurethane, but in other cases it may not be,” he said.

Harleen Aulakh was horrified to find out the building could be combustible. Picture: Christopher Pavlich

“While I don’t have the detail on the various products used by Toplace, I’ve been advised they don’t used the type of product used in the Grenfell fire.”

The building is currently the subject of a Parramatta Council cladding investigation.

When construction on Parramatta­ Rise was completed in 2015, aluminium-polyurethane cladding was still legally approved by building authorities and widely used throughout Sydney and NSW buildings.

Toplace has now called on the NSW and federal governments to follow the Victorian government in addressing the issue of cladding materials being used in buildings before any risks were known.

The development comes with state building ministers meeting at a forum today in Sydney, where a possible crackdown of industry regulations will be raised.

Nissy shows off her Lamborghini, which attracted a lot of social media attention. Picture: Instagram

“Toplace Group is committed to the safety of its residents in past, present and future developments,” a spokesman for the company said.

“Claims that builders and/or developers are at fault due to retrospective changes in law is a misleading conclusion which may result in unfair penalties.

“There are industry-standard­ approval processes for materials used during construction which are certified by the relevant authorities for compliance with building codes and standards at the time.

“Furthermore, a building is deemed safe and fit for purpose upon the issuance of an Occupation Certificate by the certifier, whereby local authorities and the NSW Fire Brigade are involved.

“Toplace urges the NSW government and federal government to follow the lead of the Victorian government by following their approach and establishing a strategy aimed at rectifying cladding materials which are now considered non-compliant due to the retrospective laws.”

The 2017 London Grenfell tower disaster, where faulty building materials helped spread a devastating fire in which 72 people died.

Two owner-occupiers, who asked not to be named, claimed combustible cladding had been found.

Medical student Harleen Aulakh, who rents an apartment, was “shocked” and “horrified” when told yesterday about the dispute over the cladding.

“I have lived here since January and have experienced countless fire alarms go off,” the 23-year-old said.

“We haven’t received any information from building management or the body corporate.

“We have seen how fires can spread with combustible cladding so, of course, I am scared.”

A Parramatta Council spokeswoman there were now 174 buildings identified as being at risk of having non-compliant cladding.

“Council has concluded full investigations of 74 buildings confirming that these buildings are compliant,” the spokeswoman said.

“Council is continuing its investigations of the remaining 100 and is prioritising ­residential buildings as part of this process.”

The Hunter St apartment block contains 133 apartments.

Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson dodged questions on how much the government estima­ted it would cost the fix the state’s cladding crisis, and whether it was working to a deadline on rectification works being completed.

The Daily Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Fire and Rescue NSW had identified 629 buildings across the state as being high-risk for cladding.