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‘Like the Jenolan Caves’: Toplace residents detail nightmare of defect-riddled blocks
A car park that looked “like the Jenolan Caves”, tiles laid over the top of tiles, cupboards without shelves in them, a missing driveway, and water streaming into wardrobes “like a waterfall”.
These were among the millions of dollars in defects that turned two Toplace towers at Botany in Sydney’s eastern suburbs into a “pretty bad place” to live, owners said.
Toplace’s Park Grove development in Botany.Credit: Louise Kennerley
But the owners of the Park Grove apartments escaped from their nightmare relatively unscathed after winning a six-year court battle against the construction giant only months before it was placed into administration.
Owners of several other Sydney buildings pursuing Toplace for alleged serious defects have not been so lucky, after the company was placed under the control of administrators dVT Group last week.
Cameron Cooper, the owner of a penthouse apartment in the Park Grove complex, said they had feared the company would go under before their defects battle came to an end and their hearts went out to other apartment owners joining a queue of disgruntled creditors.
“We were just going: How lucky are we?,” the secretary of owners corporation said. “We dodged a bullet.”
There are millions of dollars in defects at the Park Grove apartments in Botany. Credit: Louise Kennerley
Toplace’s founder and sole director Jean Nassif, 55, is on the run overseas after NSW Police issued a warrant for his arrest over an alleged large-scale fraud. His building licence has also been suspended.
On Wednesday, Premier Chris Minns urged the fugitive to hand himself in, saying creditors and enforcement agencies were keen to speak to him.
Toplace’s founder and sole director Jean Nassif is on the run overseas.Credit: Instagram
“I would encourage him to make himself available to investigators in NSW so that we can find out exactly what he’s done in this state and what his potential liabilities are,” Mr Minns said.
In February, the NSW Supreme Court awarded owners of the Park Grove apartments $4.5 million in compensation as well as nearly $1 million in legal costs after a six-year battle against Toplace and an associated entity.
“It was just delay, delay, delay,” Cooper recalled. “I think the courts got fed up with it.”
Cooper, who purchased his unit off the plan in 2011, said that in the beginning Toplace did attempt to rectify issues but “in most cases left it in a worse state of repair than the original defect.”
In one of those instances, the company offered to tile over the top of existing faulty tiles, he said.
“We looked at it and went ‘it looks OK’, but now you’ve increased the height,” he recalled.
‘I would encourage him to make himself available to investigators in NSW so that we can find out exactly what he’s done in this state and what his potential liabilities are.’
NSW Premier Chris Minns
“So the tiles are now higher than the lip and the water goes straight over.”
The owners’ corporation hired experts who detailed a litany of issues in the 158-unit complex, including widespread cracks in the cement render, exposed and corroding steel, peaking plasterboard and faulty grouting.
In court documents seen by the Herald, it was alleged there was insufficient waterproofing on the roof, external doors, windows, balconies, terraces and planter beds.
Water was spilling into the basement through external walls and concrete columns and ponding on the floor, it was alleged.
Crumbling brickwork at the Park Grove complex at Botany. Credit: Louise Kennerley
“If you’ve ever been to Jenolan Caves, you wouldn’t have to drive there, you could just drive to our carpark,” Cooper said of the water penetration.
“We’ve had the waterproofing on the roof just disintegrating, it ended up like marshmallow and blocked all the stormwater pipes.
“On our tiles we were getting all this grey sludge.”
Cooper was astonished that an occupancy certificate was issued while there was no driveway and no access for fire services to the building.
“The fire access was still full of concrete and sand,” he said.
Cooper said the owners felt that they were painted as whingers when they were told they had been delivered a beautiful building by Toplace.
Another occupant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was a tenant and not the owner of her unit, recalled water streaming into her wardrobe “like a waterfall” when it rained.
The moisture destroyed a television she was stowing for safekeeping, she said.
“It’s a pretty bad place,” she said.
The NSW Supreme Court awarded owners of the Park Grove apartments $4.5 million in compensation.Credit: Louise Kennerley
In documents filed with the Supreme Court, Toplace denied “that any aspect of the building work was or is defective”.
The company said questions were likely to arise as to whether the owners had taken reasonable steps to minimise the damage and “adequately maintained the property”.
Other parties such as subcontractors, designers or certifiers involved in the subject works might also be liable for any damages, it said.
Cooper said the owners corporation now feared it would be gouged as it seeks quotes to carry out the repair work while inflation soars.
He believes the bigger story is about failures of consecutive state governments to enforce tougher building standards.
“If you’re driving on expressways and you know there’s no police and the laws are not enforced, you’ll drive at 140km/h,” he said.
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