There's more in the Sydney Morning Herald. It sounds like an absolute nightmare!

"Residents of the Somerset apartment complex in Carlingford faced a horrifying situation: their building, constructed by notorious developer Dyldam, was left with a string of defects and no functioning fire safety system. And the responsibility to organise the fix landed with Result Strata Management, which would soon become the only strata firm to be permanently banned from practising in the state.

"Owners of the hundreds of units and the building’s commercial space have spent about $800,000 fixing the problems, and by the end of this month will have fully completed all known fire safety issues with the building, said Mark Cowell, the licensee in charge of Compass Strata, which runs the building management committee.
...
"But they are still grappling with the trail of destruction left by two of the industry’s most storied figures.

"“I’ve been a strata manager for 25 years, and I’ve very rarely ever seen a building in this sort of situation,” Cowell said. “It only happens when builders and developers are not held accountable early enough in the process, or are able to do a runner, to escape the consequences of their misdeeds.”

"Fire and Rescue NSW inspected the property over two days in October. The agency found the essential fire safety measures installed “were not being maintained and were not capable of operating to the standard” required by law, according to communications between Fire and Rescue and the City of Parramatta Council.
...
"During the inspection, Fire and Rescue staff reported nine faults across the fire detection system: the mains power supply for the evacuation system – linked to the sound and intercom systems – had been shut off, and the system was marked “offline”.

Staff also reported a tank for two water pumps was only half full, and a relay pump was three-quarters full. “FRNSW believes that there are inadequate provisions for fire safety within the building.”

"The letter to the council expressed concern about whether the building contained combustible cladding, but it could not verify if it did. The owner’s corporation had applied for the removal of cladding under Project Remediate, but then withdrew the application, it said.

"That was a good result. The owners had already fixed almost every fire door in the property and paid for a litany of other fixes for defects.
...
"The Herald revealed Dyldam to have built defective buildings across Sydney before its collapse on New Year’s Eve 2020. The company was co-founded by Sam Fayad, who is bankrupt, owing personal debts of more than $2.8 billion – believed to be the largest bankruptcy in Australia. On Monday, it was revealed he was the “Australian businessman” named in a corruption inquiry in Hong Kong. He did not respond to a request for comment.

"Dyldam is also responsible for Observatory Place, the 24-storey abandoned orange apartment block in the heart of Parramatta that was deemed so dangerous Building Commission issued a stop-work order. It is now being rectified.

"Cowell said it is difficult to know how the Carlingford building’s fire safety systems were not updated for so long because Result Strata’s record-keeping was so poor. It provided only about 12 documents to the new strata body when there should have been hundreds, he said.

"Result Strata’s Michael Lee was exposed in a Four Corners report of running an AGM of another building with security guards – reportedly paid for using owners’ funds – to control the meeting.

"Last year, Fair Trading cancelled the licences of both Result Strata and Lee after its investigation found the company had “consistently failed to appropriately disclose conflicts of interest, consistently breached the rules of conduct … charged fees for services not rendered [and] failed to ensure properties under management complied with critical fire and safety obligations”, among other things."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-trail-of-destruction-left-by-two-of-sydney-s-most-infamous-property-figures-20260209-p5o0uh.html

Worth noting the bankrupt property developers behind the Carlingford buildings, Dyldam, are different to the bankrupt property developers being investigated by ICAC for trying to bribe Parramatta city councillors:

https://gts.sadauskas.id.au/@aj/statuses/01KG1M5SJWMNC6190XKZ3AJ8EB

These developers, in turn, are different to Aland, which built the infamous Mascot Towers building in Sydney that was evacuated after cracking: https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/mascot-towers-owners-settle-with-developer-as-founder-buys-20-million-vaucluse-home-20220711-p5b0s6.html

They're also different to the developers of the infamous Opal Towers in Olympic Park, which also had cracks. That was done by a firm called ICON: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-04/opal-tower-builder-launches-new-30m-crossclaim/11765280

They're also.different to Mehris, a property developer that put up a building in Auburn that the then-Building Commissioner called the worst he'd ever seen, and another in Parramatta that needed rectification: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/developer-forced-to-fix-serious-defects-in-two-parramatta-apartment-towers-20210630-p585km.html

But Dyldam is affiliated with another development company called Ellerson, that's responsible for a string of dodgy apartment buildings:

"Former Dyldam bosses Fayad Fayad, Remon Fayad, and their father Sam Fayad are behind apartment blocks in Rosebery, Parramatta and Baulkham Hills, all of which have been slapped with sanctions from the NSW Building Commissioner.

"An ABC investigation has revealed the Fayads' property management company, Ellerson Property, has led the development and sale of dozens of new apartments across Sydney, despite the collapse of their family company Dyldam and looming bankruptcy proceedings.

"One unit block, The Laneways Rosebery in Sydney's inner south, is facing two rectification orders issued by Building Commissioner David Chandler, detailing serious defects which have prevented unit owners from moving in for more than two years.
...
"Ellerson Property's website promotes Observatory Place in Parramatta as an "elegant 24-storey building" still under construction.

"Despite developers claiming on social media the building would be finished in early 2022, the units which were being sold off-the-plan are now off the market as the NSW Department of Fair Trading investigates defective building work.
...
"Another development belonging to the family's now-defunct business Dyldam was sanctioned two years ago for posing a "hazard to human to life".

"In October 2021, government inspectors found waterproofing issues and an awning at risk of collapsing at Modena, a 15-storey apartment block in Baulkham Hills in north-west Sydney.

"The Dyldam subsidiary company, Hills Shoppingtown Pty Ltd, that owned the block, was placed into receivership in 2021 along with 22 Dyldam subsidiaries, leaving receivers McGrathNicol to fulfil a government order to fix the building."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-04/apartments-linked-to-fayad-property-companies-sanctioned/102549750

#auspol #nswpol #planning #UrbanPlanning #cities #apartment #apartments #business #property #capitalism #nsw #australia

@aj The crazy thing is, we once had very good Building Standards many of which were adopted by other countries in Asia and the Middle East.

In the late 80s and through the 90s, Construction Certification was removed from Local Government Authorities and privatized by State Governments, the benchmark of Construction Standards, State Government Public Works Departments were dismantled, and the Australian Standards organization, which set the construction rules was also privatised.

Pure folly.

@aj @nick_rogers

Couple of years ago, I installed a build in cupboard in my parents newly build apartment, it was a shitshow of colossal proportions.

One wall was thick Styrofoam with a thin cardboard covering, the other was your standard gyprock with hollow space of 5cm and a brick, and the other was concrete slab.

Now I am not a builder, but I think that's shit.

@n_dimension @nick_rogers Just today in the SMH, there was an article about a guy named Zeher Khalil.

Zeher is a private building inspector who's made a name for himself by posting the worst building jobs he comes across on social media: https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/defect-busting-or-just-in-it-for-clicks-the-rise-of-social-media-building-inspectors-20260205-p5nztl.html

His channel on YouTube is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCizZ9-GkRyYXXCrYJJIOOew

Brand new home with water leaking inside already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDi9MN4Doc

Here's another one he looked at with a balcony, seven metres off the ground, held in place with one screw on each side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMyLU993wbk

And even a $50 million penthouse where giant marble slabs were held on with three blobs if silica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjixRChH9fw

Also, I'm not a builder, but how on Earth is polystyrene allowed as a building material?!

@n_dimension @nick_rogers Just today in the SMH, there was an article about a guy named Zeher Khalil.

Zeher is a private building inspector who's made a name for himself by posting the worst building jobs he comes across on social media: https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/defect-busting-or-just-in-it-for-clicks-the-rise-of-social-media-building-inspectors-20260205-p5nztl.html

His channel on YouTube is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCizZ9-GkRyYXXCrYJJIOOew

Brand new home with water leaking inside already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDi9MN4Doc

Here's another one he looked at with a balcony, seven metres off the ground, held in place with one screw on each side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMyLU993wbk

And even a $50 million penthouse where giant marble slabs were held on with three blobs if silica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjixRChH9fw

Also, I'm not a builder, but how on Earth is polystyrene allowed as a building material?!

@aj The crazy thing is, we once had very good Building Standards many of which were adopted by other countries in Asia and the Middle East.

In the late 80s and through the 90s, Construction Certification was removed from Local Government Authorities and privatized by State Governments, the benchmark of Construction Standards, State Government Public Works Departments were dismantled, and the Australian Standards organization, which set the construction rules was also privatised.

Pure folly.

@n_dimension @nick_rogers Just today in the SMH, there was an article about a guy named Zeher Khalil.

Zeher is a private building inspector who's made a name for himself by posting the worst building jobs he comes across on social media: https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/defect-busting-or-just-in-it-for-clicks-the-rise-of-social-media-building-inspectors-20260205-p5nztl.html

His channel on YouTube is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCizZ9-GkRyYXXCrYJJIOOew

Brand new home with water leaking inside already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDi9MN4Doc

Here's another one he looked at with a balcony, seven metres off the ground, held in place with one screw on each side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMyLU993wbk

And even a $50 million penthouse where giant marble slabs were held on with three blobs if silica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjixRChH9fw

Also, I'm not a builder, but how on Earth is polystyrene allowed as a building material?!

@aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers

Good on him ...
No way would I even rent a modern house after seeing a young couple's problems after only a few months in ... their living room fan and light was left hanging 2 ft from the ceiling after rain made the slab shift ...

There's a bloke on Xitter who does the same sort of thing on shitty rentals ...
Goes by the ID of Purplepingers ... Real name Jordan van den Lamb ... shitty landlords are afraid to take him on once they find out he's also a lawyer ...
He has a website too ...

@MyView @aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers
Jordan is always good value. He was one of the hosts of The Radical Online Leftist Pipeline Podcast.
https://www.greataustralianpods.com/the-radical-online-leftist-pipeline/

@cheryanne @aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers

I didn't know that ... will have a look ... only saw him on Xitter and being a renter was interested ...

I think I read on Xitter that he is going to run as a candidate for a Socialist Party ... know nothing about it so will have to look into that too

@MyView I remember him announcing he will run as a candidate

@aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers

@MyView I remember him announcing he will run as a candidate

@aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers

@cheryanne @MyView @n_dimension @nick_rogers It looks like he also posts his videos to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkGbOuuzFdcwr6dGqFrZHg

So you don't have to engage with the dodgy car and rocket salesman's app to see his videos on dodgy houses

@MyView I remember him announcing he will run as a candidate

@aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers

@aj @cheryanne @n_dimension @nick_rogers

I'm familiar with dodgy houses ... but being handy with tools (both types) managed to make them habitable

@MyView @aj @n_dimension @nick_rogers
many decades ago we bought our first microwave (with convection oven) - it was incredibly expensive at the time -but the oven in the rental didn't work properly and it was uphill battle (and many months) to get the real estate agent to replace it.