There's a major story in the soclalist 'Sydney Morning Herald'...

There's a major story in the soclalist 'Sydney Morning Herald' this morning (11 July 2023) about a major apartment building in Canterbury, Sydney that was allegedly very poorly built. An extract is below.

Note who the owners corporation manager is. Good to see that a JLG subsidiary is being appointed for buildings that are proving incredibly troublesome.

This tells me governments have confidence in JLG's ability to eventually solve difficult problems:

"...The former chair of apartment peak body, the Owners Corporation Network, Stephen Goddard, says Vicinity has all the hallmarks of the Mascot Towers disaster. “At this stage it looks as if it’s going to become the next Mascot Towers,” he said. “The building is now held up by props.

“How can the state of NSW take all that stamp duty from the buyers but then not back them up more forcefully? They need to give the building commissioner more powers to preserve the public interest and protect those owners and prevent Vicinity becoming even more of a disaster.”

At Vicinity’s compulsory strata managers, Bright & Duggan, group managing director and Strata Community Association Australasia president Chris Duggan says it’s at least encouraging that Toplace paid that $40,000.

“But it’s challenging as Toplace has now ceased to have a building licence so they’re having to outsource to other entities to do work,” he said. “On the other hand, the developer still exists and, despite the conjecture around the owner, it still is a business backed by a lot of assets and it’s within the warranty period so there is the opportunity for a fix, although it’s still a very long process.

“We are hopeful of a good outcome. I wouldn’t share the pessimism that it could be the next Mascot Towers at this stage.”

But Quintal is adamant that far more needs to be done, with owners disheartened by the lack of action on site, and being crippled by all the extra strata levies they’re having to pay. His own have skyrocketed from $900 a quarter to $4500 a quarter..."