Mascot Towers unit owners to pay millions despite some voting against repairs

Some owners of units in Mascot Towers claim they voted against plans to repair the building, but had no choice but to pay up.

Mascot Towers’ apartment owners have claimed they were forced into agreeing to pay millions for repairs to the stricken buildings, even after voting against the original plan.

One unit owner has told news.com.au most residents voted against a $10 million special levy, but were told they’d technically already agreed to pay for remediation works.

The owner, who didn’t want his name published, said some owners then felt forced into agreeing to pay a lesser fee of $7 million plus GST.

As the changes were made and pushed through the meeting, unit owners were also told to accept paying the loans back over a drastically reduced amount of time, of nine months, instead of 15 years.

As a result, owners would be expected to fork out almost $6000 a month on average in repair bills. Lannock Strata Finance and the Mascot Towers Owners Corp have been contacted for comment.

“My partner and I are very sad and stressed,” the unit owner told news.com.au. “I have no idea how I can make this large payment.”

Residents of the troubled residential apartment complex in Mascot in Sydney’s inner south, which includes 132 apartments, were evacuated in mid-June after the facade and structure began dangerously deteriorating.

Since the evacuation, a team of expert engineers have monitored the building, and said if millions of dollars of repairs can be funded, the residents can expect to move back in at some stage in the next “three to four months”.

Documents described the building repairs as taking place in four distinct phases, and current works are expected to cost somewhere between $10 and $20 million.

The unit owner said during the meeting, one concerned party asked for a breakdown of the new costs as a “payment schedule” and was dismissed, told it would be 70 per cent of the previous $10 million proposed cost.

“This did not take into account that the payment period was being reduced from quarterly payments over 15 years down to nine equal instalments over nine months,” the owner pointed out.

He said these changes were “quite a different proposition for me and many of the owners”.

“I am not sure what to do in the following months. I know that there are owners in the same situation as me.

“I think the process was too rushed for making an informed decision about this upfront payment,” the unit owner, who didn’t want to be named, told news.com.au.

Unit owners from Mascot Towers leaving the third extraordinary general meeting.

A crack in the basement wall of Mascot Towers. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

He said the reason given for the owners being pushed into raising an amended levy, despite voting the orginal down, was that “the remediation motion was accepted earlier in the meeting, therefore the work for Stage 1 still needed to be funded”.

“Unlike some apparently wealthy owners, we don’t have enough savings to pay our share. My bank declined to extend my home loan on Friday,” he said.

The owner told news.com.au the couple had been left with no options but for his partner to sell all their assets to try and keep them afloat for the time being.

He said these drastic changes were made quickly, before being put to vote again. He said the decisions were made four hours into the stressful meeting.

“It was after 11pm and we were all overloaded with information for four hours,” he said.

He suggested those presenting on the night delivered a “one sided” account of how remediation work would be complete by summer, and this was their “last chance”.

A senior executive from the Department of Fair Trading attended the meeting as an observer. News.com.au understands this representative didn’t voice concerns about conduct in the meeting.

The building has remained vacant since it was evacuated earlier this year. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

The building remains fenced off since residents were evacuated in June. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu

Detailed minutes were sent out to unit owners at the beginning of the August, ahead of the meeting, however the changes for funding to the first phase of repairs were made without residents being able to see details of the plan.

Other details were projected on to screens throughout the meeting, but the alterations agreements and new plans were made verbally before being voted on by the unit owners.

A spokesman for Lannock Strata Finance confirmed the Owners Corp rejected the originally proposed terms offered by Lannock Strata Finance, instead opting for a special levy to be paid back on different terms, over the coming nine months.

“Lannock Strata Finance respects the decision of the owners not to move ahead with their proposed terms,” a spokesman told news.com.au.

While the payment amount had been reduced from $10 million to $7 million, not including GST, the unit owner said the payment period was altered from 15 years to nine months.

Owners had previously been told the loans would be financed to the Owners Corp at 7.7 per cent, by Lannock Strata Finance, and repaid over 15 years.

Unit owners from the troubled towers recently addressed the media as a group, saying they felt the prospect of being forced into crippling debt sets a “dangerous precedent” for homeowners.

Read more: ‘A gun to our heads’: Mascot Towers owners furious at new $10m levy

Read more: Photos reveal how Mascot Towers crisis could have been avoided

Read more: Mascot Towers residents get four hours to pack up their lives

The state’s newly appointed building commissioner, David Chandler, last week called Mascot Towers “embarrassing” and suggested the builder didn’t know how to read construction plans, after visiting the troubled complex himself.

“I’m quite certain the builder didn’t know how to read any construction plans because the faults that are in that building are simply someone who didn’t pay any attention to them,” Mr Chandler told a NSW parliamentary inquiry.

“I’m embarrassed, frankly, that the industry has allowed a product like Mascot Towers to turn up on the marketplace.”

Documents obtained by news.com.au earlier this month showed the troubled apartment complex had numerous faults, and engineers had suggested that neighbouring development work at the Peak Towers, on Church Ave, could be a factor in the buildings deterioration over recent years.

This has been strongly rejected by the developer of the Peak Towers, Aland Developments.

“Aland remains completely confident that an independent investigation will confirm that the failures at Mascot Towers are unrelated to construction nearby,” a spokesman told AAP in a statement last week.

“We believe the comments of the building commissioner at the NSW parliamentary inquiry support Aland’s contention that the problems at Mascot Towers predate any work undertaken by Aland.”

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to clarify that a meeting of Mascot Towers unit owners on 22 August 2019 was conducted in accordance with legislation and that no person involved in the meeting acted in an illegal or unethical way.

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