Mascot Towers repair bill passes $10 million as residents hit with special levy funding arrangement


August 4 2019
ABC News

Unit owners in Sydney's evacuated Mascot Towers building are facing a bill of at least $10 million to repair the 10-storey building.   :(
Key points:

    Mascot Towers residents were forced out of the apartment building in June after serious structural issues were discovered
    The final bill for the repairs is yet to be determined, but residents will vote on an initial plan for a $10 million special levy at a meeting this month
    Apartment owners have told the ABC they were "shocked" to find out the new funding arrangement

In a move one resident described as "devastating", the ABC can reveal owners will vote on a $10 million "special levy" to fund "stage one" of the remedial works for the 132-unit block in a meeting later this month.

The Mascot Towers complex in Sydney's south was evacuated in June after engineers spotted cracking in the primary support structure.

It came six months after Opal Tower in Sydney's west was evacuated on Christmas Eve for similar structural problems.   :(

In the minutes of an owners meeting to be held on August 22, owners will be forced to vote on the $10 million levy to fund the works, with the money paid in quarterly instalments over 15 years.

In June Mascot Towers owners voted to raise $1 million for initial works through a similar special levy.

But since that meeting the price tag for the building, which is too old to fall under warranty, appears to have jumped significantly.   :(

Mascot Towers apartment owner Fabiano Dos Santos and his girlfriend Tamiris Coutinho learnt of the funding proposal last night.


He said he was "shocked" to find out the new numbers and did not know where he would find the cash.

"Before last night we had this sort of number of $5 million to fix the whole situation so now we're seeing numbers between $10 million and $20 million, [so] we're very confused."

    "The numbers are just skyrocketing.

"[It means] we'll probably pay $100,000 per owner, just for this first stage thing."

The Mascot Towers residents' situation has raised questions over liability and exacerbated the "crisis of confidence" in the NSW building industry.

This week the ABC revealed residents of Opal Tower have tabled a class action suit in the NSW Supreme Court against the State Government, while Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday announced a new NSW Building Commissioner to drive "critical reforms".

The State Government has come under fire for failing to properly regulate the industry, with concerns the problems seen in Mascot Towers and Opal Tower are widespread across the city.


Real Estate agent John Higgins represents 12 owners in the Mascot Towers building.

He said his clients were "devastated" with the proposed figure.

"This is a big building and it needs a lot of work to be done," he said. "The levy [will be] a lot of money over the next twenty years.   :(

"I know one of my owners said anything over $40,000 they can't afford and they've been to the banks and the banks won't lend them the money."

At the August 22 meeting, residents will debate a proposal to engage lawyers and a barrister.

The residents will also vote to initiate legal proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court to seek an access order to the neighbouring property, 27 Church Avenue, to investigate "damage to common property".

Welcome to Sydney's ghost towers
Record apartment rental vacancies and a softening housing market are creating an odd phenomenon — apartments with no-one in them.

Under NSW law, building defects are covered under warranty for six years after completion of a development, with experts predicting residents will struggle to find someone to sue.

Like all the residents of the 10-year-old building, Mr Dos Santos and his girlfriend were forced to find a new home after being evacuated in June.

The NSW Government has offered three months of rental assistance, but that is due to run out months before the Mascot Towers is expected to be safe to occupy.

Mr Dos Santos said he was worried.

"This is one of the first times in my life that I don't know what to do. 

Talk about double slugging the victims... now they fund the repairs that are rightly the fault of the construction company... or of that company's insurance.

Where's juliar to rant that it was those dastardly Union workers?

This is a very sound reason NOT to live in a major city these days... you are at the mercy of every bastard that comes along with a shonky deal....

Maybe the answer is to go Full Socialist and impose a mandatory deposit in a controlled fund for all construction companies... non-refundable insurance into a general pot .... I cannot but help recalling Slim Mehajer and his ill-gotten millions .... living the highest life before a project is even completed and paid out.....

These fancy-dancers get heaps out of a project long before it's done.. and then always have 'shortfalls' at project's end, sometimes go 'bankrupt', don't pay their tradies and subbies ....

Goes to show some serious faults in banks loans and oversight of cash spending, and of government regulation.  This can only be deliberate.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Aug 4^th, 2019 at 11:53pm:

Talk about double slugging the victims... now they fund the repairs that are rightly the fault of the construction company... or of that company's insurance. Where's juliar to rant that it was those dastardly Union workers? This is a very sound reason NOT to live in a major city these days... you are at the mercy of every bastard that comes along with a shonky deal....

You're too late. Prices of caves are rising.

Laugh till you cry wrote on Aug 4^th, 2019 at 11:58pm:

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Aug 4th, 2019 at 11:53pm: Talk about double slugging the victims... now they fund the repairs that are rightly the fault of the construction company... or of that company's insurance. Where's juliar to rant that it was those dastardly Union workers? This is a very sound reason NOT to live in a major city these days... you are at the mercy of every bastard that comes along with a shonky deal.... You're too late. Prices of caves are rising.

Spots under the bridges are costing a king's ransom, too....

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 12:24am:

Laugh till you cry wrote on Aug 4th, 2019 at 11:58pm: Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Aug 4th, 2019 at 11:53pm: Talk about double slugging the victims... now they fund the repairs that are rightly the fault of the construction company... or of that company's insurance. Where's juliar to rant that it was those dastardly Union workers? This is a very sound reason NOT to live in a major city these days... you are at the mercy of every bastard that comes along with a shonky deal.... You're too late. Prices of caves are rising. Spots under the bridges are costing a king's ransom, too....

No vacancies. The back of Rhino's and JaSin's utes are full.

Lebanese built. I was sorta expecting this to come out eventually. Multicultural building practices, what?

A director of one of the companies ­behind the development of the latest Sydney apartment block to be evacuated over structural fears had his construction certificate cancelled during a corruption ­investigation into licensing schemes that found his qualification was issued “fraudulently”.

Sarkis Elias, named as a director of B-1st Choice Roofing on the council deed to build the high-rise Mascot Towers block, was stripped of his supervisor certificate by the NSW Department of Fair Trading in May 2005. The cancellation occurred during the approval phase.

However, Mr Elias said he was not the builder of Mascot Towers. The contractor certificate for B-1st Choice Constructions, a differen­tly named building company of which Mr Elias was a director­, was also cancelled when he lost his supervisor’s certificate.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption said in its final report investigating “schemes to fraudulently obtain building licenses” that year that Mr Elias had been issued with a “fraudulent” TAFE diploma.

According to ICAC, a phone conversation it legally intercepted in May 2004 showed Mr Elias was told by Pierre Boutayeh, a “middle man” involved in issuing false TAFE building diplomas or certificates, that applicants could supply their own references to obtain­ them at a cost of $27,000.

Mr Elias was not the subject of corrupt conduct findings. ICAC did find against Mr Boutayeh for giving false and misleading ­evidence. The phone intercepts revealed Mr Boutayeh told Mr Elias it would cost him $30,000 if he wanted the “middle man” to provide references.

At the time, Mr Elias had just returned from a trip to Lebanon.

Two months later, Botany Council’s development committee considered an application to kick-start the approval process for Mascot Towers at 1-5 Bourke Street. The application listed four Elias family-linked companies, including Mr Elias’s B-1st Choice Roofing Pty Ltd, which was later deregistered in 2012 after alleged financial difficulties.

Another Elias family-linked company ­listed among the ­developers of Mascot Towers, Oribe Pty Ltd, owned by Hanna Elias, was deregistered this month. J&B Elias, also owned by Ms Elias and listed as a Mascot Towers developer on the deed, is still operating. It gained recent approval for a 69-unit apartment block at Bunnerong Road, Hillsdale, in the former Botany Council area, since renamed Bayside.

Companies owned by Mr Elias, who lives at Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west, are listed as owners or developers of other Sydney townhouses and apartment blocks.

B-1st Choice Constructions is listed as owning townhouses at Frances Street in Lidcombe, which the company purchased in 2001, four years before its contractor certificate was cancelled.

B-1st Choice Roofing was listed on RPData’s CoreLogic as the owner of apartment blocks in Susan Street and Queen Street, Auburn. That company was deregistered in 2012.

Mr Elias had his qualified supervisor’s certificate cancelled by NSW Fair Trading in 2005, along with the building licences of 73 others. Mr Elias has repeatedly said he has no comment. He said he had nothing to do with Mascot Towers, “other than my name is on the deed”.

Solicitors for Mr Elias said they had been instructed by their client that he was not the builder of Mascot Towers.

Botany Council’s development committee passed changes to the design of Mascot Towers in 2006, a year after Mr Elias’s certifica­te was cancelled.

Get a list of every last person who profited from the construction and sale of that building, from the developers, builders and sales agents, and garnish the funds from their bank accounts until the building is structurally sound.

Gordon wrote on Aug 16^th, 2019 at 5:46pm:

Get a list of every last person who profited from the construction and sale of that building, from the developers, builders and sales agents, and garnish the funds from their bank accounts until the building is structurally sound.

Nonsense. Round up every Leb you can and BAN THEM.

Laugh till you cry wrote on Aug 5^th, 2019 at 12:31am:

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Aug 5th, 2019 at 12:24am: Laugh till you cry wrote on Aug 4th, 2019 at 11:58pm: Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Aug 4th, 2019 at 11:53pm: Talk about double slugging the victims... now they fund the repairs that are rightly the fault of the construction company... or of that company's insurance. Where's juliar to rant that it was those dastardly Union workers? This is a very sound reason NOT to live in a major city these days... you are at the mercy of every bastard that comes along with a shonky deal.... You're too late. Prices of caves are rising. Spots under the bridges are costing a king's ransom, too.... No vacancies. The back of Rhino's and JaSin's utes are full.

Rhino might be able to find you a nice hole to sleep in.