I most cases waterproofing failure is due to poor installation. In this case, the waterproofing was redone on the roof terrace of this 3 level apartment building at a cost of $200.000. However proper diagnoses of all the defects and potential sources of water entry were never carried out. Three apartments have been a worksite for over a year and one of them vacated as it is unfit to live in.

Everybody involved is going around in circles trying to find a solution and there is a pattern emerging when we attend these jobs, we see it every week. These are the most common problems we see and hear with newly built apartment buildings in and around Melbourne!

• The Builder has gone broke

• OC can only act and repair common area’s

• Defects deemed on private property are the owner’s responsibility

• Owners pursuing each other at great expense with no outcome

For example, in 9 out of 10 jobs we attend, window and door frames are diagnosed to be leaking, however, they are on private property and therefore the owner’s responsibility. But this apartment may have more exposure to weather and the others are more protected or enclosed. In our experience, it is very likely that all the frames in the building are faulty, but not showing any visible symptoms due to less exposure.

Back to the terrace and after three hours of testing and inspecting has a long list of visible and common problems. There are too many to list in this case and to meet building code, the terrace needs to be completely demolished, redesigned, and rebuilt. We’re not legal experts, but we have to find better ways to solve what appears to be a systemic failure in the systems that are meant to be protecting consumers, in many cases first homeowners.