Buying a house with built-in problems

It is a terrible situation when one buys a property with invisible flaws in its construction. Usually in Australia this is covered by the government departments that oversee the construction of them and put pressure on the company to fix them. Recently, however, it has come to light that many buildings cannot be fixed and builders bear no responsibility for the mess they create for buyers.

A radio show did a story on high-rise apartment buildings and the list of complaints from buyers was long and horrendous. It seems that people only have a month or so to raise certain issues and after that the company is free. That would seem reasonable under normal circumstances where one can do a visual check on things and approve them.

It so happened, however, that Sydney had a long dry spell and many apartment buildings were built during that time. Then came a month’s worth of rain in a day or so and all hell broke loose for many apartment dwellers. His beautiful house was suddenly flooded with rainwater.

One gentleman recounted that he had taken between 80 and 120 liters of water from a dam that he had to build in his living room. His entire apartment was flooded before he could build the wall and this ruined the carpets and furniture.

With the Grenville Towers episode in London showing the effect of poor building materials and the danger to tenants as a result, one wonders if the same could happen here. The government wondered the same thing and sent inspectors to check. Indeed, some 1,200 apartment buildings have the same type of siding that has entered the country illegally.

Money is the main objective of construction companies and over the years the standards have dropped so low that one should think twice before buying a house. With many apartments now sold off-plan, meaning before they are built, the future for any buyer can be one of heartbreak and being stuck with something with no resale value.