New home owners slugged with $10.5 billion building defects bill: Mozo

Financial comparison site mozo.com.au has found new homeowners have been charged $10.5 billion in repair costs over the past decade due to poor construction standards.

Their building defects report, Property Pain, found owners were left battling leaks, cracks and an assortment of other issues.

The issues also found most new and newly renovated apartment and house owners surveyed were in a similar position, plagued by defects that have cost them $6,434 and $5,839 respectively.

Source: mozo.com.au

To deal with the issues 60% of apartment owners facing defects had to contribute to a sinking fund and 24% were forced to pay special levies to fund the repairs.

The findings come as regulators continue to grapple with the fall out over the serious safety issues plaguing apartments in Melbourne’s Southbank and Olympic Park, Erskineville, Zetland and Mascot in Sydney.

Mozo Property Expert Steve Jovcevski said: "While buying a bright and shiny new property might seem like a good idea, the reality for many Australians is one of costly repairs and years of remediation.

"While the average cost of apartment repairs was $6,434, Mozo found 4% of owners had to pay above $50,000.

"With 670,197 apartments completed in the past 10 years, Mozo estimates, buyers have had to pay out $4.3 billion on repairs."

Source: mozo.com.au

"Those buying houses fared slightly better on average forking out $5,839 on repairs," Jovcevski said.

"However, 32% had to pay more than $5,000. Mozo estimates that with 1,059,913 houses completed over the past decade, buyers have had to pay $6.2 billion on repairs.

"Most apartment repairs (57%) were completed in under three months but 21% had to wait up to six months and 9% are still waiting for the defects to be fixed.

"If you are still waiting to have your apartment or house repaired it’s time to act.

"With fixed building warranties across the country, once the regulated time period to claim has passed you’ll struggle to get a developer or builder to fix defects with your property."