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Construction issues resolution in Sydney - Part 2


In the earlier post I described the timeline of the intriguing case of construction issues/defects resolution.

What's obvious:
  1. Nobody is rushing to fix the earlier reported issues
  2. Vendors don't do anything to fix the issues
  3. Strata management doesn't assist in fixing the issues, but forward messages to the executive committee of the owners corporation
  4. Treasurer of the owners corporation Executive Committee is somehow involved in the process and communicates directly to vendor, strata manager and the builder. No visible results though, but just promises of better future.

Research

The owner initiated the following research:
  • Strata rules to see who is responsible for what in terms of building defects
  • Seeking legal advice to set up a plan for further actions against the Vendor and/or the Builder
  • Requesting strata scheme account statement

Outcomes

  1. There is no law for breach of contract. So legally there is no obligation to act as per contract of sale even after it is signed. This is what the lawyer said to the owner. In this case that means the Vendor doesn't necessary have to fix the defects at their own expense in 6 months after the contract completion.
  2. Some of the building defects that were reported as individual unit defects are actually Owners Corporation (OC) responsibility to repair. That means the rectification work should be done on OC expense. Builders are responsible by law to provide warranty and rectify the building defects. However not all of the defects were included by Strata Manager, Vendor and Executive Committee (EC) as OC representatives in the list of OC defects in this case.
  3. EC used some of the OC money from sinking fund to help the Vendor and Builder to rectify some of the defects. No communication on that has been done to the rest of OC. Also no result of defects rectification, but EC constantly says that owners have to be patient and wait.
  4. Questionable expense items on the OC account.
  5. The Builder declines to rectify some of the defects and refers the owner to body corporate. 
Other posts from this story.
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