A SYDNEY apartment block with serious structural problems which could cost each homeowner tens of thousands of dollars to fix has been shut down before completion.

But despite NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler uncovering holes in walls and “serious structural compromise” of the Strathfield building, the project’s 45-year-old property developer claimed he’s never been on a job site where Australian building standards have ever been fully followed.

The OandE Developments worksite on Liverpool Rd was issued with a stop-work order earlier this week following SafeWork NSW employees uncovering “cracking of the tensioned concrete structural reinforced slab” and “large voids and absence of cover to the structural reinforced steel”.

The private certifier on the building, Professional Certification Group, claimed the builder has progressed the project beyond what was approved by the certifier.

The order is the third building site to be targeted since September, when the state government gave Mr Chandler broad new powers to stop dodgy building work. “If I look at apartments like the ones here at Strathfield, you could imagine that it may be $20,000 per apartment,” he said of potential rectification works.

The six-storey, $6m project site has come to a standstill while project developer and builder, Omar Abdul-Rahman complies with orders to fix the site. But he took aim at the Australian standards for building and construction, which are designed to protect consumers from substandard work.

“Which job site is really built to Australian standards 100 per cent?” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Every trade has standards but it does not mean that the standards are met 100 per cent.”

Ben Pike
Daily Telegraph

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