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[Jimmy-T]

Does a leak in your unit block roof mean your entire waterproofing needs to be replaced in one massive hit? Some contractors say it does.

[See the full post at: Is rooftop waterproofing the latest strata scam?]

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[Mailbox]

I own a unit in a block of 16 units. Haven’t had too many problems as we have a very good/diligent Strata Committee.

This building was completed in 2000 approx but we have had some water ingress problems. We have found out that the waterproofing wasn’t approved by council as no application was sent to them and therefore didn’t appear on any Strata Committee Minutes.

We have employed engineers and after 3 quotes I have been given an approx cost of $200,000 per unit which is way beyond my budget! The other unit owners are also concerned as they too will have financial problems.

We don’t have any recourse with the builder as he is not around anymore. I don’t know if it is “overkill”. Tiles  ripped up, scaffolding erected for all floors because other externals are not compliant.

Engineers  have presented at meetings and seem to be ok but I wouldn’t know. The other owners  seem to be  knowledgeable and have asked questions of the engineers, which have been answered, but $3.2 million for a leaky roof and related issues seems excessive.

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[Strata Ken]

The only solution is for the building commissioner to look at some of the reports and remediation plans by engineers and the costing from builders and determine if these are reasonable. The previous comment has been asked for $200k per unit, when a typical unit build cost is about $500k. I’m starting to think that $200k per unit is standard fee for builders, or maybe for small unit blocks they make it about $3m for the total.

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[Jimmy-T]

I’m wondering if this is one of those cases where mandatory maintenance projects are piled on to owners so that they are persuaded to sell to a developer. There’s one crook going around the Eastern suburbs of Sydney doing exactly that.  He’s buying into blocks in need of repair, reporting them to council for fire safety non-compliance, and NCAT for failure to repair common property, then buying the units off frightened owners at (literally) knock-down prices, then selling to developers for demolition at a massive profit.  It’s not illegal – he’s using the letter of the law – but immoral to the nth degree.

Maybe in this case the building is a bit too new for that – but if it’s on a chunk of prime real estate, who knows?

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[Jimmy-T]

My post on this on Linken-in got 2,128 Impressions (whatever that means) and reached 1,420 members. Meanwhile, there’s another example of this knee-jerk, high-cost and unnecessary reaction to any leaks in any building HERE.

A few thoughts for committee members facing this dilemma:

1. Just because your building is more than 20 years old, it doesn’t mean your waterproofing has failed or will do so any time soon.

2. Just because you water proofing is leaking, it doesn’t mean it can’t be repaired.

3. Just because there is water ingress when it rains, it doesn’t mean it’s coming from the roof.

Strata buildings are complex – anyone who comes up with a one-size-fits-all response to water proofing problems is probably having a lend. The Building Commission needs to get on top of this before we’re in another strata insurance kickbacks or embedded network scandal.

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