Residents vow to fight back in ‘forced’ return to Opal Tower

A month after evacuation, Opal tower residents have rallied together and refuse to budge after claiming they’re being forced to return.

As today marks a month since Opal Tower residents were first forced to evacuate their cracking building, they continue to “fight back”.

Irate owners and tenants have put on a united front, demanding that they receive further written reports and confirmation that their problem high-rise in Sydney’s Olympic Park is safe to return to.

They say Opal’s builder Icon is wrongly forcing them back into a construction site, with more than 100 apartments effected by remediation works.

Icon had last week extended temporary accommodation allowances for residents who could go back but refused to until the Body Corporate’s own engineering report from firm Cardno had been finalised.

Now the builder has been forced to extend those allowances again after residents rallied together over the weekend.

The apartments where work has been carried out. Residents say they don’t want to return to a construction site.

RESIDENTS FIGHT BACK

On Friday, Lee Hoe Gui said Icon had sent them an update that seemed to attempt to force them back into their apartments.

“We’d like everyone to help to ‘fight back’ — we cannot be pressured to move back in,” he wrote on the residents’ Facebook group.

“I suggest we all ring Icon and the strata tomorrow and demand for the (Cardno) report.

“We must also insist that we will not be moving back in until we received a written statement to confirm that it’s all good to move back in.”

Many went to the building over the weekend to express their concerns and “bombard” representatives with questions.

Another wrote she believed Icon had to take care of them if they refused to live in a construction site.

“No one can guarantee the safety of lives at this stage,” she said.

“Why do we have to take the risk?

“One of the residents told me that she went back to the apartment to get some of her stuff and the construction people are sharing the same lift.

“What if the steel plate drops on a kid’s feet? Dangerous!”

Icon reportedly issued a statement on Friday evening saying it would have the Cardno report by close of business, which was much earlier than the email was sent.

That came after a former resident leaked photos from an Icon spreadsheet to news.com.au, detailing how many units were coded “red”, which meant they could not be returned to while works were carried out.

A former resident shared this worksheet highlighting which apartments would remain vacant.

The document revealed 105 units were affected, many more than the 50-odd that had been reported previously.

Residents were then sent a similar document detailing where works would be carried out and which apartments would be affected.

There are 392 apartments in the building and several tenants or owners have already returned to those in the safe zone to “get on with life”.

Last week, an interim report released by the NSW Government found a number of design and construction issues that likely caused the damage to the apartment building.

While the viability of residents re-entering the building was “beyond the scope” of the investigation, University of NSW dean of engineering Mark Hoffman told reporters that residents may want to investigate issues in the report before moving back in.

News.com.au has contacted Icon and developer Ecove for updates on further reports.

A resident shows the report they were given detailing the work. Picture: 7 News Sydney.

SHRINKING APARTMENTS

Several apartment will lose some floorspace after remediation work gets carried out on their damaged floors.

The floors requiring work are on level 4 and 10 and at least four apartments could lose up to 1sq m of floor space, adding further blows to their already plunging unit prices.

Engineers will reportedly have to sandwich four precast concrete panels together with extra cement, one of which began cracking on Christmas Eve, causing the initial evacuation.

The Daily Telegraph reported the process would strengthen walls in critical areas but also increase the width of the inner wall by about a foot.

An Icon spokeswoman said it would only be a very minor encroachment and residents would be compensated.

Icon has already been reimbursing residents as much as $500 for temporary accommodation and meals.

Another unit torn apart in the works.

The damaged floor slab on level 10. Picture: Opal Tower Investigation Interim Report.

FEEDING FRENZY OF NEGATIVITY

The loss of floor space is just another blow in an already dire financial outlook for Opal owners, who were recently offered just $1 for their apartments.

Property analysts say the situation has created a “feeding frenzy of negativity” for Sydney’s property market, particularly around off the plan units.

Coupled with softened market conditions, My Housing Market chief economist Andrew Wilson told the ABC there was so much industry uncertainty.

“There’s a high-point of supply in the market and a general retreat in buyer confidence,” he said. “And then Opal Tower happened — it couldn’t have come at a worst time for developers.

“It’s a feeding frenzy of negativity out there.”

Some owners paid up to $1 million for their homes and face losing a fortune.

Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said it was impossible to predict just how much money Opal owners stood to lose, as any potential price drop would depend on whether or not the issues could be resolved.

“This market has taken a hit already with the drop in investor activity,” she told news.com.au last month.

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