Opal Tower resident Ehsan Jahanandish reveals how evacuation ruined ‘home’, holiday

The Jahanandish family loved their apartment on the 25th floor of the Opal Tower; they had created a home filled with love and happiness, but all that came crumbling down at 2.45pm on Christmas Eve when the evacuation siren wailed.

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It was Monday, Christmas Eve 2018. I decided to work from home and have a relaxed last working day of the year.

My wife, Saghar, was home too. We rent a unit in Opal Tower.

About 2pm, my wife asked me if I felt a shake in the building. It was about 45 minutes later that the evacuation alarm went off: “EMERGENCY, EVACUATE NOW.”

It was not the first time we heard this alarm and all previous times, it was just false one.

My wife thought we should go downstairs, even if it might be nothing. I told her it was just a false alarm and going out would be a waste of time but she insisted that we go downstairs to check.

When we got to ground floor, the reality was starting to kick in. Everyone were in initial stage of panic. We could see police officers instructing people to get away from the building. What we heard after that was the start of the most troublesome holidays we ever had: “The building may collapse.”

Ehsan Jahanandish pictured in his apartment on level 25 Opal Tower. Picture: Monique Harmer

As soon as we heard that, my wife broke down and started to cry. It was the home that we moved in three months before that day and I watched her putting together that home with passion and love.

A home is more than just a house, unit, building or even the items inside the property. A home has a spirit which only those living in that home can feel and know.

My wife was in shock and she was worried about our home.

Until that day, she loved the building, the area and our unit very much. It was a feeling of devastation we haven’t experienced before. We were in the Bicentennial Park until around 8pm before we could go to the Exhibition Hall 4 of Sydney Showground. In the early hours of Christmas Day, we were told that the building is safe for us to return and only residents of 51 units cannot return to their homes until further notice.

An image from inside one of the apartments shows the ceiling and flooring removed and propping equipment installed. Residents claim they weren't given notice their units would be gutted but the builder Icon says it has kept the body corporate abreast of all developments and taken strict records before undertaking any work. (AAP Image/Supplied)

On December 27, we received notification from the builders that they wanted to meed the residents. The notification came at 2.20pm and the meeting was due to start on 2.45pm!

It seemed that they tried their best for people to miss the meeting. I raised my concerns in the meeting and asked the builders how they could risk people’s life and allowed us to return home when they were not 100 per cent sure about the safety of the building! In the meeting the builder asked all the residents to move out so they can work day and night without disturbing us and finalise a thorough investigation.

They claimed that the building was 100 per cent safe but they wanted to do more checks. What I could not understand was how someone can say they are sure about something, but they still want to do more checks on the thing they are 100 per cent sure about.

They denied having any doubt about the safety of the building but we could see they are not sure about it themselves.

Work been carried out on the tenth floor of the Opal Tower in Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

It’s now Monday, January 14, and not only we did not spend our New Year Eve and New Year’s Day, and the holiday we looked forward for the whole past year, in our home, we spent it somewhere we did not choose, doing things we did not want to do.

On top of that, as tenants we still have to pay rent, despite not being able to live in the units we are paying for. The lack of regulation and legislative support for tenants and landlords in this situation is troubling.

The rental agreement is between the landlord and tenant and if there is no mutual agreement to pause the rent for the duration of evacuation, the rent is payable under the agreement.

If we wish to stop the rent it will be in arrears which can affect your rental history for future. Although the rental agreements state that the rent must abate in the event that the premises become uninhabitable, there is a need for clear guidelines to interpret these clauses in this situation.

There should be regulations to allow tenants to stop the payment of rent for the period of time they are unable to use their rental property and enable the landlords to use their landlord insurance to cover them for that period. Especially in the event like Opal Tower fiasco that landlords and tenants are both suffering and struggling to protect their interests.

I believe that the real estate industry lacks the proper regulation in this regard and since this incident is somehow the first one of this scale in NSW, I think there should be an improvement to support and protect tenants and landlords in future.

To be able to live in the building again, we need transparency from all stakeholders.

The owners’ body corporate has to allow the builders, Icon, to give us full information about the cause of the issue which started this fiasco. We also need to know what they have done to prevent this type of incident happening again in the future.

The body corporate seems to believe that by blocking information, they can save the value of their properties. But in my opinion, the damage is done and the value of this property can be restored by having the residents returned.

The fact is, if the tenants don’t feel safe in the building, they will move out and the owners and landlords will struggle for some time to find new tenants due the reputation of the building.