Cracking, rusting steel among faults in Keira St apartments

The 34-unit Beleira complex on the corner of Keira and Campbell streets was completed in 2017 and an apartment changed hands as recently as January this year for $700,000.

That buyer - and many others - may be having second thoughts after the Building Commission slapped a Building Rectification Order on the complex over a range of "serious defects" that included water leaking into an apartment, corroded beams, "uncontrolled cracking" in concrete slabs and runoff flowing under a fire door and into the car park.

And the developer - Sydney firm Sam Hanna and Co - has been given just six months to repair all of them.

The rectification order was issued by the Acting Executive Director, Assistant Building Commissioner Elizabeth Stewart, following an investigation by a third party with the approval of the building's owners corporation.

Among the list of faults - which runs to 24 pages - is the water running under the fire door and into the car park. The reason for that is there is no drain installed beneath the door.

In the basement and ground floor common areas there was "uncontrolled cracking up to approximately three millimetres wide in the basement slabs".

"Some cracks have migrated through the full depth of the suspended slabs with water permeating through," the order stated.

In the same area there was also "severely corroded steel beams/cross braces" between perimeter walls of the car park.

The order also states issues with apartment six which has "uncontrolled water ingress into the bedroom via the external wall".

The same apartment has a problem with the bathroom, where the floor slope to the drain is not sufficient "causing accumulation of excess water throughout the area".

The order directs the developer to investigate all the apartments to identify any other instances of this "recurring defect".

For the majority of the faults, the developer has two months to submit a written report on how to fix them and then up to four months to repair them.

"I am aware that the development is occupied which may delay the developer doing the things ordered to be done by this order," Ms Stewart said.

She said that had been factored into the timelines laid out in the rectification order.

"The potential consequences of the serious defects set out in this order are that they may negatively impact the amenity of the development for owners and occupiers of the development and may reduce the ability of the development being used for its intended purposes by owners and occupiers ... such as a reduction in the habitability of apartments by their residents," Ms Stewart stated.

The draft order was given to the developer, the owners corporation, the building's private certifier and Wollongong City Council.

Only the owners provided a written response, which included the two defects in apartment six which were not listed in the draft order.