Respected engineer sounds alarm on extent of defective Darwin apartment buildings

A respected Northern Territory construction industry figure has spoken out about what he says is the dangerous state of Darwin's apartment buildings, revealing serious structural issues exist in about 80 per cent of those he has inspected.

John Brears, who has managed some of the NT's most iconic construction projects, warns there could be catastrophic consequences if the NT government does not act on the troubled buildings.

Mr Brears was the project manager during the construction of NT Parliament House, the NT Supreme Court and the Kakadu Crocodile Hotel during the 1980s and 1990s.

For the past 15 years, he has inspected Top End apartment blocks as a consulting engineer for owners, potential buyers and body corporates.

"Some buildings have not been built correctly to keep water out.

"Water leaks in around windows, through cracks in the roof, and into the basement.

"It can cause structural deterioration with the rusting of the reinforcement bars, causing cracks in the concrete to expand and the concrete falls away.

"We have one apartment building in Darwin at the moment which has temporary steel props in the basement holding up a concrete slab, which is the tiled deck around the swimming pool."

Mr Brears said some issues in Darwin were similar to those that led to the collapse of a Florida apartment building in 2021.

Ninety-eight people were killed in the disaster.

"I don't think we're at that [point] at the moment, but I've seen a number of buildings … that if [issues aren't] rectified completely, it could go that way," Mr Brears said.

"That building in Florida was 40 years old. We don't have many apartment buildings that are that age, but we have some that are 20, 25 [years old], and we have some that have significant issues that need to be addressed."

Water ingress the main issue

In recent months, Daniel Hetherington has been travelling to the Top End from interstate. 

Working for a remedial building company, specialising in waterproofing and repairs, Mr Hetherington said about 90 per cent of the apartment blocks he had inspected had water ingress issues. 

"Water gets into the structural steel components of slab fixings and steel structures and then it starts causing corrosion, which starts leading to structural defects in a building," he said.

Mr Hetherington said these issues were often managed through "bandaid solutions".

"But the bandaid solution is not addressing the problem where the root cause is coming from," he said.

"A lot of people think that a handyman can fix a lot of the problems, where it is expertise that you actually need to actually address it."

Mr Hetherington said the cost to repair such issues could vary, depending on when they were addressed.

"It can get in the tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.

Buying into a nightmare

In most cases, maintenance of common property in apartment buildings is handled by strata management companies.

Kelly Freeburn worked in strata management in Darwin for eight years and managed about 100 buildings.

She said she would recommend less than 10 per cent of Darwin's apartment buildings to people looking to buy, due to the structural issues many have.

"There's very few that I would walk up to someone and say, 'Yep, I definitely think you should buy that'," she said.

"I've had multiple people that say they're selling their unit because the levies are going up, and the levies are going up because of the cost of repairs."

Call for government action

Mr Brears said the NT government was either unaware of the extent of the problem or did not understand the long-term implications.

He said it now needed to take control.

"I think that the apartment buildings we know have issues — it should be mandatory for them to be inspected every three years," he said.

"A written report would be organised by the body corporate managers and sent to every apartment owner, so every owner knows exactly what the issues are with their building.

"A copy should also go to the NT government's director of building control and be added to the building board file on the property."

Mr Brears said problems could be identified if the NT government appointed an independent building commissioner, like in New South Wales, to carry out random checks during a building's construction period and report back to government.

He also said during construction, the building certifier, engineer and architect should undertake regular progress inspections, and provide written reports to the director of building control.

Lands, Planning and Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne said his department had taken action when made aware of building defects that may cause safety issues.

"It is the responsibility of bodies corporate to notify owners when [they are] made aware of such defects," he said.

"The director of building control ... has appropriate powers under the act to work with landowners to resolve building defects and issues with buildings of all classes."