Mascot Towers owners renew plea for government help
Mascot Towers unit owners have hit back at claims from NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler that there is no viable plan to fix the building, calling on the State Government for help.
Southern Courier
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Mascot Towers unit owners have hit back at claims from NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler that there is no viable plan on the table to fix the cracked building, renewing their desperate calls for the state government to step in and help pay for remediation work to begin.
Unit owner and solo mum Treacy Sheehan told the Southern Courier she was struggling to juggle mortgage and childcare payments and to run her own business while also trying to find money to pay her portion of a $7.7 million levy to start remediation work on Mascot Towers.
At an extraordinary general meeting of the Mascot Towers Owners Corporation last month, which ran late into the night, unit owners passed a motion to pay a $7 million levy plus GST to complete stage one remediation work on the cracked building.
Residents of the Mascot Tower’s 132 apartments were evacuated in mid-June due to cracking in the primary support structure and facade masonry and have since been living in temporary accommodation.
Ms Sheehan, who owns a penthouse in the building, said she was struggling to borrow the money to pay her portion of the levy which she said included nine monthly payments of $10,500 starting on October 1.
She desperately called on the State Government to step in and help the unit owners.
“That is what we need. Even for (the government) to put up the $7.7 million and we pay it back,” Ms Sheehan said.
“I am struggling to get a loan or refinance my mortgage … it is just so depressing.”
Last Monday a letter was sent on behalf of the owners corporation to NSW Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson pleading with the minister for financial support, so they could sign a contract for remediation work to begin on September 30.
“The strata committee conducted a survey which revealed that 35 per cent of the respondents will be unable to pay the levy that was recently struck for $7.7 million (to complete stage one remediation work on the building),” the letter, obtained by the Southern Courier, read.
“The engineering professionals associated with Mascot Towers have worked extremely hard in the last three months to get to a point where remediation work can commence on the building.”
The letter also claimed that the longer the building was left the higher the chance it would become worse and work needed to start soon.
“Our engineers’ advice is that the building in its current condition is less capable of sustaining further overloading due to thermal load cycles that are likely to be imposed onto the building structure during the coming summer,” the letter read.
However, newly appointed NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler spoke in front of a budget estimates hearing last week and raised concerns about whether the engineers were in a position to start work on the building.
“They are not in a position to start the work any time soon,” Mr Chandler claimed.
“It is OK to come up with something that is urgent that they need to do immediately, but what is missing is what is all the work that is required to actually pull that building back to a point that it might achieve an occupancy certificate?
“My concern is that they may be induced to start work on something that actually turns out to be not viable.”
When asked whether he thought the State Government should provide financial support for remediation work, he responded “I think we should cross that bridge when we see a viable plan”.
An owners corporation spokesman hit back at those claims today and said remediation work was ready to go ahead.
“We do have a plan which has been developed by experts of their field. We need to begin work and it needs to begin now,” he said.
“We heard the comments that Commissioner Chandler made … and we can assure everyone that our owners are certainly not in a cart ahead of the horse here.
“The engineering advice is that the works have to start by the end of this month to avoid the negative impact of thermal heating of the building as we move into the warmer months.
“The thermal issue poses a serious threat to the building itself if work doesn’t start and if not addressed could make the building unviable to fix. Our state government needs to be willing to work with us to resolve this.”
The spokesman said the owners corporation was seeking to have “urgent direct meetings” with representatives of the State Government.
“We need a solution to assist with our current cash flow problem.
“We want a hand from government or some sort of push from government for banks to do the right thing and support us.”
Engineering company T.O.P. Consulting Group, who has been tasked with completing the stage one work, declined to comment.