UPDATED The latest on the cladding debacle, and major building defects.

Major update - 5th December 2019

Biowood cladding now deemed unsafe, and thousands of additional buildings now expected to be affected.

Thousands of apartment owners across Australia who thought they were safe from potentially deadly cladding fires now face millions of dollars in bills to remove and replace timber-based panels.

In a landmark legal ruling, timber-PVC cladding that was believed to be a reliable alternative to dangerous aluminium composite has now also been declared unsafe.

This puts the widely-used Biowood panelling into the same category of major defects of the kind that caused the catastrophic 2017 blaze at London’s Grenfell Tower in which 72 people died, and the Lacrosse building in Melbourne, where this year owners won $5.7 million in damages after a cladding fire in 2014.

“This will affect thousands and thousands more buildings all across Australia,” said Faiyaaz Shafiq of JS Mueller & Co Lawyers who conducted the case at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Read the Domain article: https://www.domain.com.au/news/apartment-owners-face-millions-of-dollars-in-re-cladding-bills-following-landmark-ruling-915801/

Combustible Cladding

The Lacrosse apartment building fire (2014) and Grenfell Tower fire (2017 – 72 dead) both involved combustible cladding, but the efforts in Australia to make our existing and future buildings safe has been taking some time.

In Queensland, the Government has amended the Building Regulation 2006 (Building and Other Legislation Cladding Amendment Regulation 2018), and the new laws applied in Queensland from 1 October 2018. Under these new laws building owners may be required to register their buildings and complete the combustible cladding checklist.

The registration and checking for existing buildings was a four stage process:

To be completed by 29 Mar 2019 - deadline passed

Register buildings and complete the combustible cladding checklist (part 1).

To be completed by 31 Jul 2019 - deadline passed

Complete the building industry professional statement and complete the combustible cladding checklist (part 2).

To be completed by 31 Oct 2019 - deadline passed

Engage fire engineer and register their details on the combustible cladding checklist (part 3).

To be completed by 03 May 2021

Complete the building fire safety risk assessment, fire engineer statement and the combustible cladding checklist (part 3).

You can read more about the Government action here:

https://www.saferbuildings.qld.gov.au/background.html

UPDATE 5th Nov, 2019 A list of 444 buildings across NSW that are potentially clad in flammable material, was handed to the NSW Parliament yesterday. The government has determined that the list will not be made public for the time being for security and confidentiality reasons.

Major Building Defects

With regard to major defects in Strata buildings, as we’re seeing, the most disastrous cases are in Sydney with Opal Tower and now Mascot Towers, and whilst NSW has taken some steps, e.g. the establishment of the Strata Building Bond and Inspections Scheme, and appointment of a Building Commissioner, David Chandler, (and he’s certainly been busy), commentary about the ‘holes’ that are in the Bond Scheme raise concerns about just how well it’ll achieve its aims in the years to come.

In Queensland, we don’t yet have either a Bond Scheme or a Building Commissioner, and while some developers might baulk at a 2% contribution to such a bond scheme, we’ve seen instances of sale discounts and incentives for prospective purchasers in the current cautious climate which are way above 2%. Getting in place mechanisms like an effective defect bond scheme, if well done, would surely go some way to reassuring buyers looking at off-the-plan contracts, and purchasing in newer buildings.

We’ll keep updating this post as relevant and significant events occur.