Poor Building Standards
For a number of years, I have lamented on the poor building standards, especially for properties that are destined for the rental market. I’ve often used the saying “near enough is good enough”. Too many builders are more concerned about their profit than they are about the condition of the building they create. The situation is highlighted by the poor standards of the Opal Towers in Sydney.
And there are many now being reported. It is somewhat of a crisis in the building industry. There are warnings to potential buyers not to buy units above 5 or 6 stories. Buyer beware.
Corruption in Building
My late father was a builder – in fact, was a building supervisor, originally working for my uncle and he was a meticulous checker of every part of the build. I remember when my uncle closed his business and retired my father started to work with a state housing entity in a southern state. He learned very quickly that the man who held the position before him was “on the take”. He would not check the quality of the work well, as he was on the payroll of the builders. When my father took over and would not pass the buildings for payment to the builder until the work was perfect, there was a lot of trouble. My father was certainly threatened.
Brick Wall by Yegor Chuperka at Unsplash.com
Building Standards are Lower
There has been discussion in the media about the standards of building being diminished, in part by the way buildings are supervised and checked by the builders and those people charged with checking/approving the quality.
My Experience in New Rental Properties
I moved into a brand new, never before lived in property a few years ago, and had quite a few problems. The air conditioner did not work, and the property manager took 6 months to do anything about it. They believed that it could not be faulty and it took ages to convince them. As it turned out, apparently during the build someone stole the motor and the builder replaced it with a motor that was never connected properly.
There were a number of minor issues too – but when it came to fixing things, I experienced other issues, which I believe was a gender issue. Being female, I was told that things were not broken – but was later proven that I was right.
My current home, a 4 storey building has many issues, and it is not yet 12 months old. Water problems including water leaking through the life ceiling, issues with security, windows and more. I am not happy with some of the issues. Getting things fixed is always an issue too.
Sadly it is a serious problem in Australia right now, with high rise buildings crumbling.
What do you think about this issue?
