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AJ Sadauskas
AJ Sadauskas
@aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

There's more in the Sydney Morning Herald. It sounds like an absolute nightmare!

"Residents of the Somerset apartment complex in Carlingford faced a horrifying situation: their building, constructed by notorious developer Dyldam, was left with a string of defects and no functioning fire safety system. And the responsibility to organise the fix landed with Result Strata Management, which would soon become the only strata firm to be permanently banned from practising in the state.

"Owners of the hundreds of units and the building’s commercial space have spent about $800,000 fixing the problems, and by the end of this month will have fully completed all known fire safety issues with the building, said Mark Cowell, the licensee in charge of Compass Strata, which runs the building management committee.
...
"But they are still grappling with the trail of destruction left by two of the industry’s most storied figures.

"“I’ve been a strata manager for 25 years, and I’ve very rarely ever seen a building in this sort of situation,” Cowell said. “It only happens when builders and developers are not held accountable early enough in the process, or are able to do a runner, to escape the consequences of their misdeeds.”

"Fire and Rescue NSW inspected the property over two days in October. The agency found the essential fire safety measures installed “were not being maintained and were not capable of operating to the standard” required by law, according to communications between Fire and Rescue and the City of Parramatta Council.
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"During the inspection, Fire and Rescue staff reported nine faults across the fire detection system: the mains power supply for the evacuation system – linked to the sound and intercom systems – had been shut off, and the system was marked “offline”.

Staff also reported a tank for two water pumps was only half full, and a relay pump was three-quarters full. “FRNSW believes that there are inadequate provisions for fire safety within the building.”

"The letter to the council expressed concern about whether the building contained combustible cladding, but it could not verify if it did. The owner’s corporation had applied for the removal of cladding under Project Remediate, but then withdrew the application, it said.

"That was a good result. The owners had already fixed almost every fire door in the property and paid for a litany of other fixes for defects.
...
"The Herald revealed Dyldam to have built defective buildings across Sydney before its collapse on New Year’s Eve 2020. The company was co-founded by Sam Fayad, who is bankrupt, owing personal debts of more than $2.8 billion – believed to be the largest bankruptcy in Australia. On Monday, it was revealed he was the “Australian businessman” named in a corruption inquiry in Hong Kong. He did not respond to a request for comment.

"Dyldam is also responsible for Observatory Place, the 24-storey abandoned orange apartment block in the heart of Parramatta that was deemed so dangerous Building Commission issued a stop-work order. It is now being rectified.

"Cowell said it is difficult to know how the Carlingford building’s fire safety systems were not updated for so long because Result Strata’s record-keeping was so poor. It provided only about 12 documents to the new strata body when there should have been hundreds, he said.

"Result Strata’s Michael Lee was exposed in a Four Corners report of running an AGM of another building with security guards – reportedly paid for using owners’ funds – to control the meeting.

"Last year, Fair Trading cancelled the licences of both Result Strata and Lee after its investigation found the company had “consistently failed to appropriately disclose conflicts of interest, consistently breached the rules of conduct … charged fees for services not rendered [and] failed to ensure properties under management complied with critical fire and safety obligations”, among other things."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-trail-of-destruction-left-by-two-of-sydney-s-most-infamous-property-figures-20260209-p5o0uh.html

The Sydney Morning Herald

The trail of destruction left by two of Sydney’s most infamous property figures

It is a double whammy for this Sydney apartment block, which was built by one of the most notorious property developers, and managed by one of the city’s worst strata managers.
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AJ Sadauskas
AJ Sadauskas
@aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

Worth noting the bankrupt property developers behind the Carlingford buildings, Dyldam, are different to the bankrupt property developers being investigated by ICAC for trying to bribe Parramatta city councillors:

https://gts.sadauskas.id.au/@aj/statuses/01KG1M5SJWMNC6190XKZ3AJ8EB

These developers, in turn, are different to Aland, which built the infamous Mascot Towers building in Sydney that was evacuated after cracking: https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/mascot-towers-owners-settle-with-developer-as-founder-buys-20-million-vaucluse-home-20220711-p5b0s6.html

They're also different to the developers of the infamous Opal Towers in Olympic Park, which also had cracks. That was done by a firm called ICON: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-04/opal-tower-builder-launches-new-30m-crossclaim/11765280

They're also.different to Mehris, a property developer that put up a building in Auburn that the then-Building Commissioner called the worst he'd ever seen, and another in Parramatta that needed rectification: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/developer-forced-to-fix-serious-defects-in-two-parramatta-apartment-towers-20210630-p585km.html

But Dyldam is affiliated with another development company called Ellerson, that's responsible for a string of dodgy apartment buildings:

"Former Dyldam bosses Fayad Fayad, Remon Fayad, and their father Sam Fayad are behind apartment blocks in Rosebery, Parramatta and Baulkham Hills, all of which have been slapped with sanctions from the NSW Building Commissioner.

"An ABC investigation has revealed the Fayads' property management company, Ellerson Property, has led the development and sale of dozens of new apartments across Sydney, despite the collapse of their family company Dyldam and looming bankruptcy proceedings.

"One unit block, The Laneways Rosebery in Sydney's inner south, is facing two rectification orders issued by Building Commissioner David Chandler, detailing serious defects which have prevented unit owners from moving in for more than two years.
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"Ellerson Property's website promotes Observatory Place in Parramatta as an "elegant 24-storey building" still under construction.

"Despite developers claiming on social media the building would be finished in early 2022, the units which were being sold off-the-plan are now off the market as the NSW Department of Fair Trading investigates defective building work.
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"Another development belonging to the family's now-defunct business Dyldam was sanctioned two years ago for posing a "hazard to human to life".

"In October 2021, government inspectors found waterproofing issues and an awning at risk of collapsing at Modena, a 15-storey apartment block in Baulkham Hills in north-west Sydney.

"The Dyldam subsidiary company, Hills Shoppingtown Pty Ltd, that owned the block, was placed into receivership in 2021 along with 22 Dyldam subsidiaries, leaving receivers McGrathNicol to fulfil a government order to fix the building."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-04/apartments-linked-to-fayad-property-companies-sanctioned/102549750

#auspol #nswpol #planning #UrbanPlanning #cities #apartment #apartments #business #property #capitalism #nsw #australia

Serious defects in Sydney unit blocks linked to family of property developers as owners wait to move in

Former Dyldam bosses Fayad Fayad and Remon Fayad, and their father Sam Fayad, are behind apartment blocks across Sydney slapped with sanctions from the NSW Building Commissioner.
The Sydney Morning Herald

Developer forced to fix serious defects in two Parramatta apartment towers

The 22-storey towers in central Parramatta were found to have a raft of defects, including in an internal load bearing part of them.

New twist in Opal Tower saga as builder launches counter lawsuit

Icon, the builder of the troubled Opal Tower at Olympic Park, lodges documents in the NSW Supreme Court alleging the infamous cracking damage was caused by "shortcomings" in its design.
The Sydney Morning Herald

Mascot Towers owners settle with developer as founder buys $20 million Vaucluse home

As Mascot Towers apartment owners count their losses on the damaged building, the founder of Aland Developments has settled on his own home real estate, paying $19.5 million for a house in Vaucluse.
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David P
David P
@pewnack@aus.social  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

@aj

Firstly, developers should be held personally criminally responsible, as in arrested for something related to actions or failure to take actions that result in endangering life. As opposed not just allowed to declare bankruptcy and move on.

Secondly, building inspectors the same.

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Bakunin Boys
Bakunin Boys
@bakuninboys@aus.social  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@pewnack @aj honestly punitive measures don't work. Turns out people who don't think things through includes consequences for themselves. Also it's cold comfort for the people who own the properties. Real solution is good regulations and good audits.

Problem is that this is immediately rephrased as "red tape".

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David P
David P
@pewnack@aus.social  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@bakuninboys

"Red tape" is what keeps business, corporations and governments from harming or killing the public.

@aj

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Bakunin Boys
Bakunin Boys
@bakuninboys@aus.social  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@pewnack @aj Strongly agree here, my point was that holding people responsible (and therefore injecting some risk) creates a sort of immune system effect, so I feel you're right in that respect.

Right now we have people who really don't believe the effective things we have are actually effective, such as the regulation of CFCs. They'll say things like "whatever happened to the Ozone Layer thing? Must've been bullshit. Red Tape." Same with anti-vax, same with climate. Having a building burn down gets people worried about the problem, and gaol-time has them feel more comfortable, but actually having the buildings stay up in the first place has them thinking "maybe all these checks and balances are red tape".

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