22 January 2024
By Hannah Wilcox
A St Leonards apartment block has been delivered a rectification order from the NSW Government after more than 50 serious defects were discovered.
Located at 567-573 Pacific Highway, the block was built in 2018 by St Leonards Real Estate Development Pty Ltd.
It is home to 27 apartments and basement parking for 31 cars.
A consultant was engaged by the Department of Customer Service in December 2022 to carry out an inspection; finding 51 faults that were not compliant with the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act 2020.
Faults were located throughout the building, including a lack of adequate waterproofing and physical degradation of the floor and structural elements in the basement, to mold growth in the lobby on Level 8 as well as multiple blatant inadequacies in meeting fire safety requirements.
The rectification report instructed the developer to “eliminate, minimise or remediate each respective serious defect” with threat of penalty if not addressed.
In June last year, the developer and North Sydney Council were served a notice of intention to issue a building work rectification order and were invited to provide written representations.
A month later, both parties received another notice after further defects were identified.
Interestingly, no written submissions were received.
Advertised as an “architecturally designed apartment promis[ing] luxurious living in the heart of St Leonards”, one of the two-bed, two-bath flats went under the hammer for $1 million in May last year.
The order will remain in place until the defects are corrected.