Rose Bay: Cracks appear in unit building near Richmond Rd site hit with stop work order

Concerning images have emerged of cracked walls inside a Rose Bay apartment complex, located near a building site ordered to stop work.

A photomontage of the planned development at 6-8 Richmond Rd. Picture: Woollahra Council.

Concerning images have emerged of cracked walls inside a Rose Bay apartment complex which neighbours a construction site ordered to stop work by the NSW Building Commissioner, with impacted residents calling for more action by the building watchdog.

A multimillion-dollar mixed-use commercial and residential development at 6-8 Richmond Rd, only streets from Rose Bay wharf, has been forced to stop work by the building watchdog after excavation works were discovered to have caused “significant damage” to surrounding apartment buildings.

In the stop work order, NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler wrote work was currently, or was likely to be, carried out in a manner that could result in “significant harm or loss to the public or occupiers … of the building”.

Mr Chandler said excavation and shore pipe drilling works at the work site – to build the basement parking – had likely caused “structural cracking and significant damage to the apartment blocks on both sides of the development”.

The order was issued to Richmond Rose Bay Pty Ltd following an inspection in June.

A photomontage of the development under construction at 6-8 Richmond Rd. Picture Woollahra Council.

The deserted building site at 6-8 Richmond Rd, Rose Bay.

A Rose Bay resident familiar with the stop work order said they were not opposed to the development, but wanted it to be built properly.

“There’s no doubt the building commissioner and his department are making inroads in their quest [for building compliance] but more needs to be done,” they said.

Cracks at a Rose Bay residence. Picture: supplied.

Damage at a Rose Bay residence. Picture: supplied.

“Whether that means more boots on the ground by way of site inspectors with the power to issue on-the-spot fines for breaches in licensing or illegal building practices, I’m not sure”.

The resident said the revelations at the site showed the wide-ranging risks to owner-occupiers.

“Buildings should not be put at risk of being damaged due to a lack of oversight”.

Mr Chandler said the builder was required to investigate the cause of the cracking and “present a plan to stabilise and remediate any damage before recommencing excavation and construction”.

He said the builder had engaged with independent peer review engineers to consider the situation and was “working cooperatively with the adjacent property owners to address the issues.”

Mr Chandler recently said he had been pushing for greater powers to order developers to fix serious defects in low-density housing, along with apartment blocks.