Mascot Towers

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Things are going from bad to worse for the 132 owners in the defective Mascot Towers complex in Sydney.
Residents were <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/99854-mascot-towers-residents-await-causes-of-cracking" target="_blank">evacuated in June</a> after cracking in its beams forced them out.
Now there are more cracks appearing, and the already noted cracks are getting wider.
Urgent repairs are now required to avoid a structural failure.
Owners and residents were updated by a structural engineer commissioned by law firm Mills Oakley yesterday. 
They raised a significant concern toward  an increased cracking in the basement footing slab which supports the towers.
“(We) have been advised that remediation of the bearing capacity of the soil underneath the slab is now required on an urgent basis so as to avoid a structural failure in the north eastern tower one corner,” the advice reads.
Cracks currently range between 0.2 and 0.5 millimetres.
“It is our current view that once the cracking reaches 0.8mm the structure would be deemed unsafe,” the structural engineer warned.
Sky News advised residents are not expected to return this year. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NzTplQHydSU" frameborder="0" width="360" height="315"></iframe> Source: Sky News.
Earlier in the year it was suggested the neighbouring Peak Towers apartment block, developed by Aland, had affected Mascot Towers, a sentiment which engineering consultants agreed with.
Aland <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/100080-not-us-says-aland-as-mascot-towers-crack-concerns-investigated-in-2011" target="_blank">rubbished the claims in June</a> and reportedly denied lawyers representing the Mascot owners corporation <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/103132-aland-deny-mascot-towers-culpability-but-refuse-access-to-neighbours" target="_blank">entry to the building</a>.
Residents told how the basement carpark was flooded during the Peak Towers excavation.
The Mascot Tower was developed by the Elias family to a design by architect Krikis Tayler.
In the 2006 off the plan marketing prices started at $340,000 for a 72 sqm one-bed unit, from $450,000 for a 97sqm two-bed unit with two car spaces, and from $800,000 for 139sqm and three beds, also with two car spaces.
 
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Mascot Towers cracks get bigger, with structural failure now feared

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The NSW Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson has suggested displaced residents of Mascot Towers had devised a scheme to secure more taxpayers' money.
The minister said owners had the option of taking out a loan over many years but instead decided at its recent special strata meeting to raise special levies, only to then say they could not afford the repayments.
Owners in the apartment block need to start paying levies of between $5000 and $14,000 a month for the next nine months to stabilise the building.
Mascot Towers owners have said they were "absolutely gutted" after Anderson's suggestion.
Mr Anderson told Parliament on Wednesday that the owners had "flip-flopped" over their options to fund essential remediation work on the cracked building which they evacuated in June.
Since the extraordinary general meeting last month, many owners found banks would not allow them to re-borrow any money.
They are now instead pleading for low-interest loans from the government.
"To say we had a conspiracy to force the government into a corner, or words to that effect, is just absolutely gutting for us," one owner told Domain.
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Labor's spokeswoman for building reform Yasmin Catley said the residents deserved an apology from Mr Anderson after his comments.
"These people have not, under circumstances, sought a hand-out from this government," she said.
"What they have done is ask for assistance purely and simply because they have no other option."
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Mascot Towers residents accused of devising a scheme to secure taxpayers' money

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The developer of an apartment block neighbouring the beleaguered Mascot Towers has disputed claims it could be to blame for the building's cracks.
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<div id="article-titan-mobile-pos1" class="advertisement">The Mascot Towers residents have been presented preliminary findings from a report into what may have caused the cracking, but the case has not been expressly pinpointed.</div>
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<div class="advertisement">A meeting that lasted nearly 5 hours was held on Thursday night, attended by more than 300 people who were evacuated on June 14 due to worsening cracking and movements that date back many years.</div>
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There had been earlier engineering advice that potentially linked the building's issues partly to Aland's next-door development called Peak Towers.
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But Aland on Friday said it was "completely confident that an independent investigation will confirm that the failures at Mascot Towers are unrelated to construction nearby."
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"We believe the comments of the building commissioner at the NSW parliamentary inquiry support Aland's contention that the problems at Mascot Towers pre-date any work undertaken by Aland."
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After visiting Mascot Towers last week, the newly appointed building commissioner David Chandler told an upper house committee that he'd not seen many building as poorly built.
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"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 MPs.
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A dilapidation report prepared in 2017 for Aland's pending construction found parts of the Mascot Towers complex were in "reasonable-to-poor" prior to the construction of Peak Towers.
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It noted cases of cracking, material loss, material separation and efflorescence - the deposit of white crystalline salts on concrete.
The Daily Telegraph reported Aland rejected a request for access­ from lawyers representing the Mascot owners corporation for access because it “did not demonstrate a genuine need from an engineering perspective as to why it was required”.
“The information sought could either have been obtained­ from plans and associated reports relating to Peak Towers, or bore no relevance to the access that was requested,” it said.
Legal proceedings <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/100080-not-us-says-aland-as-mascot-towers-crack-concerns-investigated-in-2011" target="_blank">against the adjacent ALAND-built Peak Towers building</a> are being considered after engineers were denied access to the site.  
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Aland deny any Mascot Towers culpability but refuse access to neighbours

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Residents of Sydney’s Mascot Towers won't return to their apartments until 2020.
The earliest timeline is January 2020 while the crack remediation work proceeds.
Residents of the complex’s 132 apartments were <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/99854-mascot-towers-residents-await-causes-of-cracking" target="_blank">evacuated in mid-June</a>.
They have since been living in <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/100225-mascot-towers-residents-given-temporary-accomodation-assistance-by-nsw-government" target="_blank">temporary accommodation</a>.
Engineers investigating the cause of the problems told last night's extraordinary general meeting of unit owners that some residents
The main item on the EGM agenda was vote on a special levy to pay for remediation work on the complex.
It was for the first of four stages.
The meeting voted to raise a special $7 million levy on the decade-old building which is no longer covered under warranty for major defects, which expires after six years in NSW. 
The quote from Sydney engineers Top Consulting covered fixing general defects, water­proofing and rectification work on an expansion joint and transfer beam. 
Earlier on Thursday, residents were told the NSW government has agreed to extend rental assistance for the displaced residents another six months, out to March 2020, subject to an agreed funding deed.
“The decision has been made following a meeting between the building commissioner, strata manager, building manager and engineers which has led to a more focused line of inquiry for the root cause of the issues faced by the buildings,” Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson said in a statement.
Legal proceedings <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/100080-not-us-says-aland-as-mascot-towers-crack-concerns-investigated-in-2011" target="_blank">against the adjacent ALAND-built Peak Towers building</a> are being considered after engineers were denied access to the site. 
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No return to Mascot Towers until 2020

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The local council have revealed its was responsible for certifying Sydney's defective residential building Mascot Towers for occupation.
It came ahead of the push by the NSW government for private certifiers to sign off new apartment high-rise construction.
The planning documents, which were held in storage at Newcastle, show the then Botany Bay council issued a final occupation certificate to the developer J &amp; B Elias in July 2008.
The council, now known as Bayside, was the principal certifying authority appointed under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.
The former state minister for Better Regulation, Matt Kean, had suggested some of the state's troubled apartment complexes arose following "dodgy" private certifiers having conflicts of interests with developers.
The council development approvals at Mascot Towers came when the local member Ron Hoenig was the mayor.
Now the local MP for Heffron which includes Mascot, Hoenig says the council thoroughly considered all planning requirements for Mascot Towers.
The current mayor Bill Saravinovski says council only became aware of the cracks last month, although the building defects emerged in 2011 just three years after completion.
 
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Mascot Towers certified for occupation by local council

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EXPERT OBSERVER
Property buyers are now well aware of the building defects disasters seen in Opal Tower and Mascot Towers. But the reality is that any building could hide big issues from potential buyers, meaning that people could land in a nightmare scenario, even if they had carried out all possible checks.
While Owners Corporations are obliged by law to keep records, the law doesn’t say that they have to be complete, accurate or true.
Right now, Owners corporations are outsourcing their record keeping to strata mangers, and in many cases the record keeping is poor. There are no consistent standards, and records often disappear when they are transferred from one strata manager to another. The industry should be doing something about it, and laws need to be tougher. 
In recent inspections of strata records, EYEON Property Inspections has seen the following examples of altered and incomplete records:
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<li class="x_MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">Strata committee altering general meeting minutes to change decisions made by a majority of owners</li>
<li class="x_MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">No information provided in records of the status of building rectification works</li>
<li class="x_MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">Recent records of building defects “lost” on transfer from previous strata manager.</li>
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In the property podcast, The Elephant in The Room, a Sydney Strata Manager said she comes across Strata Committees who don’t want certain information to be included in the minutes because it would negatively affect property values.
She said that if she isn’t comfortable with the minutes or disagrees with the included information, she won’t include her logo on it. She knows the minutes are wrong but is powerless to ensure the correct information goes in the records. She can’t stop the owners creating false records.
Strata records need to be better. Strata managers should have consistent record keeping systems and the transfer of records should be audited. Owners corporations should always have their own copy of all records. There should be severe penalties for non-disclosure of information.
Otherwise, how can property buyers trust the information they are provided?
The bottom line is that if there are gaps in records or the detail about current issues is sparse, buyers need to be cautious. These issues should be red flags and buyers should consider making lower offers or walking away from a property if the strata records are poor.  In some cases, current owners might be trying to get out of the building before major issues become public knowledge.
Michael Ferrier is the managing director at EYEON Property Inspections.
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Think strata construction is bad? Strata records are worse

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Sydney’s Mascot Towers appears to be “moving in a downward motion”, according to the building’s co-ordinating engineer. 
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The 10-year-old building was evacuated after engineers became concerned about continued cracking in support structure and facade masonry.
Mascot Towers’ co-ordinating engineer has now identified a new issue along the northern and eastern boundaries of the complex.
“It appears that the building is moving in a downward motion,” an update sent to residents and owners on Monday night said.
The update didn’t elaborate on “downward motion”.
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The residents of Mascot Towers where forcibly evacuated from their homes late June 14th 2019 because their building started developing alarming cracking on its structure.
A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/mascot-towers-emergency-fund" target="_blank">Go-Fund-Me campaign</a> has been created by a resident of Mascot Towers with the goal of raising 1$ million.
The creator said, "We plan to use the kind donations to help everyone in the building start the work on stabilizing the structural defects as well as investigate what went wrong."
"This is only the start for us, we face massive repair costs that could reach $6+ Million."
"The residents are faced with a $1 million cost just to get back home, this has to be paid by 1st August 2019," they added.
The latest news to come from the building is that it is 'sinking'.
Residents who aren't able to get back in to their unsafe apartments in Mascot Towers have been given access to temporary residential accommodation assistance by the NSW Government.
The government will supply emergency financial support to the Mascot Towers Owners Corporation.
Residents of a one bedroom unit will be able to access funding for accommodation of up to $220 per night. Two bedroom apartment residents will be able to get $300 per night and there is up to $400 per night for a three-bedroom unit, all paid subject to actual costs incurred. 
Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation Kevin Anderson said residents of the 132 units would temporarily be able to access financial support for incurred accommodation expenses whilst engineers determine the root cause of the issues. 
The Go-Fund-Me campaign has only reached $4,450 as of 10:00 June 25 2019.
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Mascot Towers residents seek $1 million through Go-Fund-Me campaign

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Residents who aren't able to get back in to their unsafe apartments in Mascot Towers have been given access to temporary residential accommodation assistance by the NSW Government.
The government will supply emergency financial support to the Mascot Towers Owners Corporation.
Residents of a one bedroom unit will be able to access funding for accommodation of up to $220 per night. Two bedroom apartment residents will be able to get $300 per night and there is up to $400 per night for a three-bedroom unit, all paid subject to actual costs incurred. 
Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation Kevin Anderson said residents of the 132 units would temporarily be able to access financial support for incurred accommodation expenses whilst engineers determine the root cause of the issues. 
“The residents of the Mascot Towers are facing exceptional circumstances with a long wait to understand what has caused this problem," Anderson said.
"That’s why the Government is providing residents and owners some certainty by helping them meet the cost of emergency accommodation until liability can be determined and these costs recovered. 
“Whilst residents wait for advice from specialist engineers on the root cause of the problem, we are taking decisive action to ensure all residents of the complex, both home owners and tenants, are not left out in the cold. 
“I hope that this package will also help ease some of the stress that has no doubt been felt by the Strata Manager and volunteer Strata Committee, who have worked tirelessly to support residents in these exceptional circumstances.” 
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Mascot Towers residents given temporary accommodation assistance by NSW Government

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<div>The first official recognition of basement cracks at Mascot Towers came in 2011, three years after the apartment block's completion.</div>

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<div>There are strata minutes for the building showing that in March 2011 the owners had an extraordinary general meeting to commission engineer MES Consulting to investigate defects.</div>

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<div>It was following the discovery of basement cracks and leaks in the carwash bay.</div>

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The report into the building at 1-5 Bourke Street was completed by MES Consulting in 2011.

In October 2011 the minutes of an owner's corporation executive committee meeting show more serious defects were discovered including structural movements around the property.

There was also swimming pool leakages.
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Consulting plumbers also identified that no hot water pumps had been installed to drive heated water into the upper levels resulting in poor pressure in upper levels, the documents said.

Builder J &amp; B Elias agreed to fix the defects at no cost to the owners, and a "spirit of co-operation of existed between the owner's corporation and the builder".

However, the defects returned after the repairs.

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"The committee noted its serious concerns in the builder's commitment and ability to address these issues," documents said.

J &amp; B Elias could not be contacted by The Australian Financial Review ahead of its latest article on the tower that was finally evacuated last Friday night.

Aland Developments, developer of the tower next door, Peak Towers, told The Australian Financial Review they too discovered the existing defects in Mascot Towers ahead of starting their recently completed construction at Peak Towers.

Owners want to seek compensation from the builders and service providers constructing the tower next door, Peak Towers at 27 Church Avenue, alleging the problems were caused by works being done.

Photos from Aland's pre-construction 2017 dilapidation report conducted by an engineering consultancy reportedly show the same cracks that are now seen in the tower's basement.

"The dilapidation report from Australian Consulting Engineers as well as revelations of legal action by the owners corporation of Mascot Towers against several parties including an engineering firm over 'new slip joint defects' as far back as July last year confirm the structural issues with Mascot Towers is completely unrelated to work on Aland's Peak Towers," Aland Developments managing director Andrew Hrsto said.

"We have intentionally limited our commentary about the structural damage to Mascot towers to date to allow the independent technical investigation being undertaken to run its course without interference.

"However, we feel compelled to respond to some of the reckless commentary and speculation in recent days that has sought to pre-empt and in some cases shape the outcome of investigations."

Residents and owner in the damaged Mascot Towers want the NSW Premier to take a larger role.
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Not us says Aland, as Mascot Towers crack concerns investigated in 2011

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The owners of evacuated residential tower Mascot Towers in Sydney, who face an immediate $1 million rectification levy, decided last year to take legal action against the developer of an adjoining building Aland Developments and Bayside Council seeking compensation for slip-joint defects.
Owners started the process of pursuing Aland in the middle of 2018 to rectify cracks in the building and units said to be caused by the construction of the neighbouring apartment building Peak Towers at 27 Church Avenue.
The building management issued an update on Monday, saying that meetings are organised for Thursday to discuss reports about the structure.
The email confirmed that a claim on the building's insurance policy for temporary accommodation had been declined, as many of the Mascot Towers residents remain in limbo since Friday's evacuation.
Last Thursday Mascot Tower residents received a notice from Strata Choice outlining that planned installation of temporary building propping to help fix "a slip joint defect" in the car park had been brought forward.
But on Friday evening Mascot Tower residents received a second notice saying units would need to be evacuated that night by 9pm.
The building was constructed in 2008, more than six years ago, meaning owners are not covered under building and construction warranty.
The Mascot Towers, designed by architect Krikis Tayler and developed by the Elias family, sits above the train station, but State Transport confirmed there was no impact on the airport rail line or Mascot train station below the complex.
The Daily Telegraph reported details of the special levy on the 122 apartments that will 'perform urgent repair and maintenance."
 
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