Damaged roof approved by Sydney’s Auburn council

Questions are being asked about Auburn council’s building approvals process after an apartment block’s roof blew off in a storm.

01/02/2016: 14-22 Water rd, Lidcombe apartments suffered storm damage on the weekend. The roof that blew off Auburn Councillor Ronnie Oueikk's apartment complex in Saturday's storm was built as a "modification", with Oueik in 2008 sucessfully applying to his council to build the roof outside plans originally approved. Pic by James Croucher

Questions are being asked about Auburn council’s building approvals process after it emerged that the roof of a Sydney apartment block that blew off in a weekend storm was built by a councillor as a “modification” to original plans for the building.

Council records show councillor Ronnie Oueik, the most prolific of the property developers who sit on the council, applied for and ­obtained approval in 2008 from the council to alter the roof on the development.

That roof modification of the Water Street, Lidcombe, property involved installing a “traditional pitched roof” instead of a “box cutter” style roof.

It was approved by the council after its “development assessment engineer” raised no concerns.

“The proposed modification to the roof structure of the proposal is of minimal impact (and) the modifications will not increase significantly the height and bulk of the approved development,” the council minutes state.

It was unclear whether that modification played any role in the extent of the damage, but the ­destruction of the roof has raised questions given the ­development is only a few years old.

Mr Oueik did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

The incident is the latest controversy to face the embattled council, which has until the end of the week to provide the NSW government with a good reason why it should not be suspended ahead of a public inquiry into how it has handled potential conflicts of ­interest involving councillors who are also property developers or real estate agents.

Up to 300 people were evacuated from the building following the storm, with several cars severely damaged by falling debris. Residents have been told they will be unable to return to their homes for two months.

Resident Harry Choi said his home had been severely damaged by the storm.

“I was at home that day, my bedroom wall cracked, my ceiling cracked and water came through,” Mr Choi said yesterday.

Residents will be permitted to enter their homes for 20 minutes tomorrow to remove necessities and to empty their fridges.

Separately, Deputy Mayor Salim Mehajer is due to appear in Downing Centre Local Court today to face allegations of forgery and vote rigging.

Mr Mehajer, his sister Fatima, his brother-in-law Jamal Elkeir and five other school friends and associates are due to front Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court. Each of the eight ran as a candidate at Auburn’s 2012 election and Mr Mehajer and Ms Elkeir are charged with forging documents to rig that election.

That crime carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Further controversy surrounding Mr Mehajer emerged last night, with Sydney student Abdel Razzak, 24, telling Network Seven news he faced having his licence suspended after receiving a string of speeding fines that had been ­initially addressed to Mr Mehajer’s home and which involved his cars, including a Ferrari.

Mr Razzak said despite a signed statutory declaration claiming he was driving at the time of the ­infringe­ments, he had no knowledge of the incidents, and had never even met Mr Mehajer “in my life”.

Representatives for Mr Mehajer say the claims are false and they have records showing he was the driver.