In the early hour of November 25th, 2014 at Melbourne’s Lacrosse tower, a fire began with a smoldering cigarette on the balcony of apartment 805 left atop a plastic food container.

When your apartment suffers water damage, the last thing to ask is who should claim on their insurance. The first thing is who’s responsible, then ask what, where and why.

This episode dissects the Building Code of Australia (BCA) pathway to compliance for combustible cladding and how the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has reacted to Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP).

This final episode draws parallels to similar situations like New Zealand’s leaky building syndrome of the 1990s to discuss how Australia can best move forward on the pathway to rectification.

The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) has created a new way for owners corporations in New South Wales to seek compensation for building defects. This includes defect cases relating to water ingress, faulty fire safety systems and combustible cladding.

A joint Deakin / Griffith University study, ‘An Examination of Building Defects in Residential Multi Owned Properties’, was coincidentally launched within days of the Opal Tower building evacuation on Christmas eve, 2018. It provided an academic foundation to the intense public and regulatory debate that ensued about the strata building defect crisis.