Bought off the plan - many building defects

[rodimus]

Hi
I bought an apartment unit in Upper West Side in Melbourne city. My mum also bought 1 in the same tower.

After completion, we discovered many building defects.
1- white liquid stains on the kitchen floor tiles - can't remove. This stain could be caused by other trades (maybe the painter?), but shouldn't the builder take responsibility for this?
2 - very badly done concrete wall surface at the balcony - lots of holes, rough aggregates, like a road surface! Some units have smoother surface. My brother's unit's concrete wall was patched up with concrete to make it smooth. But me and my mum's were not.
3 - sliding door to one bedroom has a 3cm gap between the 2 panels because the door panels are too short for the opening.
4- exhaust fans in toilet are not connected to the switch button, it turns itself on all the time when the master power switch is on.

What can we do about these defects? We submitted a defects form last month and still nothing is done by the Builder. Is there a government board that we can complain to?

What other actions can we take? Can we make the developer responsible for this? Or is the contract between the Owner and the Builder?

 

[Scott No Mates]

Engage your own building inspector to do your defects inspection - this will provide you with adequate information to properly submit your defects claim.

Take the matter to VCAT if so required.

 

[AlmostBob]

4. a building code issue?, if the toilet does not have an exterior window it is supposed to be ventilated

 

[Tigerboy]

There seems to be one major defect and that is the sliding door. Need to chase it up with the builders. In relation to stain that is messy not a defect. The roughness of the concrete might be okay. The toilet fan is working albeit in conjunction with the light switch. Unless this is a breach of electrical regulations, you have a fan that works.


As mentioned above I would get an inspection done, because there could be other more serious defects that you haven't noticed.

Easiest way is to deal with the builders. If they do the help, then our need to take action at vcat.

 

[The Y-man]

Hi
I bought an apartment unit in Upper West Side in Melbourne city. My mum also bought 1 in the same tower.

After completion, we discovered many building defects.
1- white liquid stains on the kitchen floor tiles - can't remove. This stain could be caused by other trades (maybe the painter?), but shouldn't the builder take responsibility for this?
2 - very badly done concrete wall surface at the balcony - lots of holes, rough aggregates, like a road surface! Some units have smoother surface. My brother's unit's concrete wall was patched up with concrete to make it smooth. But me and my mum's were not.
3 - sliding door to one bedroom has a 3cm gap between the 2 panels because the door panels are too short for the opening.
4- exhaust fans in toilet are not connected to the switch button, it turns itself on all the time when the master power switch is on.

What can we do about these defects? We submitted a defects form last month and still nothing is done by the Builder. Is there a government board that we can complain to?

What other actions can we take? Can we make the developer responsible for this? Or is the contract between the Owner and the Builder?

Should be under builder's warranty.... unless the builder disappears. If it is a reputable builder/developer combo, it should get fixed. When we bought OTP with a big builder, they eventually fixed everything (anout 3 months all up - they spend over a month aggregating all the issues). The door and tiles should get fixed.

The concrete walls - not sure what was promised (another joy of OTP - never quite know what you will get)

As per almostbob - I would bet the bathroom has no windows, and the venting is required at all times to stop mould etc.

The Y-man

 

[The Y-man]

Rod,

Also check
- the power points are all working
- hot water is ok
- cooker/oven is ok
- no leaks under kitchen and bathroom sink when you run the water
- all lights ok
- floor covering is ok
- remote to garage etc
- heating/cooling if provided
- intercom
- cracks in tiles

The Y-man

 

[rodimus]

Thanks everyone for your advise.

Yman, thanks for the list of things that i should check. I have to bring something to the unit to check all the powerpoints, maybe a phone charger or something.

After a long debate with the builder yesterday, he decided he will fix my sliding door, because I kept using the term "not fit for purpose", and he had no way of saying the door was fit for purpose without insulting his own intelligence. Originally he didn't want to do anything because he says this is in line with the architect and developer's agreed design, and that every level has the same measurement.

The toilet exhaust, it seems that the 2 bedrooms 2 bathroom units, the builder decided to save on exhaust fans for the unit and only install a fan in the ceiling space. So each time you turn on the exhaust, it will ventilate both toilets. The weakness is, one toilet has a strong exhaust while the other toilet you can barely feel any suction.

The switches in the unit have a strange way of working. Each wall switch button has a blue light, when the light is on toilet 1's exhaust button, then you can turn toilet 2's exhaust on/off from toilet 2. In certain rooms, you need to press the switch 4 times before the light comes on. Anyone know what strange switch system this is? It's trying to be modern but end up nobody knows how it works. Even the builder couldn't explain exactly why he had to press the switch 4 times before the bedroom light comes on.

 

[The Y-man]

Even the builder couldn't explain exactly why he had to press the switch 4 times before the bedroom light comes on.

I suspect these are ones with dimmers, so they are meant to light at different brightness (level 1 to 4 = brightest). If they are not dimmable lights (eg flouro/energy savers) it won't work (or they have been wired up wrong)
In fact, if you use flouro's, they may damage the units.

The Y-man

 

[Melbournian]

buying off the plan apartments in melbourne nowadays is suicidal. better to just keep the money in a term deposit

 

[Chris Kerin]

The reality is that according to the City Futures Centre at the University of NSW, 85% of buildings built in the last 10 years suffer from building defects.

What you need to do is:

1. find out what they are before the limitation period and/or insurance coverage expires;

2. engage an appropriate expert (ie someone experienced and intelligent) to advise on the cause of the defects (ie not just do a list of the defects) and who is responsible for the defects; and

3. seek legal advice as to the steps you can take to ensure the person responsible for the defects comes back and fixes it or pays for it.

Regards

Chris

 

[see_change]

We just looked at a seven year old unit .

So far , two special levees , one to raise a fighting fund for court action ( Which they won ) Second to repair the work that needed to be done .

It seems that if they had n't taken action to repair the ongoing water damage , by inaction and allowing the Damage to worsen , the BC would become liable for some of the cost of the repairs . Wasn't aware of that until I read that strata report .

Builder now bankrupt .

There's a lot to be said for buying older units from the investment view point.

Cliff

 

[MelbGal]

buying off the plan apartments in melbourne nowadays is suicidal. better to just keep the money in a term deposit

Agree - Many of my friends who work in architecture industry said they would never buy in new apartment blocks (highrise) as the quality these days have deteriorated. I think they are referring to the massive ones in the city area.

 

[MelbGal]

Hi
I bought an apartment unit in Upper West Side in Melbourne city. My mum also bought 1 in the same tower.

After completion, we discovered many building defects.
1- white liquid stains on the kitchen floor tiles - can't remove. This stain could be caused by other trades (maybe the painter?), but shouldn't the builder take responsibility for this?
2 - very badly done concrete wall surface at the balcony - lots of holes, rough aggregates, like a road surface! Some units have smoother surface. My brother's unit's concrete wall was patched up with concrete to make it smooth. But me and my mum's were not.
3 - sliding door to one bedroom has a 3cm gap between the 2 panels because the door panels are too short for the opening.
4- exhaust fans in toilet are not connected to the switch button, it turns itself on all the time when the master power switch is on.

What can we do about these defects? We submitted a defects form last month and still nothing is done by the Builder. Is there a government board that we can complain to?

What other actions can we take? Can we make the developer responsible for this? Or is the contract between the Owner and the Builder?

It's been a while since I built but I thought there was an inspection before settlement - this is where I put my foot down, was difficult and got many of my gripes fixed. There was then another official inspection at 3 months where I could issue a list of defects to the builder to rectify. I waited until close to this end date so that I could list all defects to arise (if you submit early you may miss some key defects) and submitted this to the builder for repair.

Then the structural warranty period commenced (7-yrs I think?)