The NSW government in 2012 weakened statutory warranties - the period in which apartment owners could sue if they found defects - from seven years for everything to six years for "major defects" and two years for everything else;  but the legal rub is, what constitutes "major defects"?  

The Opal Towers apartment block at Olympic Park quite conceivably, could fall outside the current legal definition of "major defects". 

The Brookfield Multiplex High Court Case back in 2014 must be considered and other court decisions have found that engineers and consultants do not normally, have direct contracts with the apartment owners and cannot therefore, be sued (no privity of contract in others words).

The legal protections for strata building apartment owners have been seriously eroded over the past seven years between the watering down of the statutory warranties and the decisions of the courts dealing with the ability to sue either builders or other liable parties for defects. 

The pendulum of the scale of justice must be pushed back towards the consumer and the overall quality of high rise buildings must be warranted by law in future.

Brian Winship

Port Macquarie