I have a property in Sunshine – a town house type unit with 2 bedrooms – I have had no problem renting it but there seems to be quite a lot of movement in the area and so far we have had to fix the cracks and plastering twice in the last 4 years that we've had the property. So it's costing at least 3-5 k to fix and paint it everytime.
The property has improved in value and keeps improving with the new roads going to Melbourne etc – it's on 14 km away from the city, you can walk to the station and major shopping centre. So position is perfect. But the cracking is really annoying and I am not sure if I should sell or hang on to it. I mean how much more can it crack and will the building fall apart? I guess, one eighth of the land is mine if it did!! The building is about 35 years old, brick and in total there is eight units on the land – each double storey with two bedrooms, has their own little courtyard.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Out of curiosity, are they strata titled? If so, I thought it was the stratas responsibility to repair the buildings from the internal paint out (ie the cracked wall). In the last strata unit I woned, it was the stratas reaponsibilty to repair/replace a window that no longer closed properly, a cracked shower screen, reseal/waterproof the shower and repair the carport. Maybe it would pay to ask, and maybe a call into the Dept of Fair Trading (they handle all strat stuff – in NSW at least) to check where you stand.
Mick
Thanks for your advise – I never thought of that. We have what's called a Body Corporate and each unit has ownership of their units, they are stuck together though – so they are not standing on its own – kind of like apartments.
I don't really want to sell it in the current climate – and it hardly seems a good reason to sell. I know it will improve even more if I can hold on. If I sold it, I wont be able to buy again – it seems the prices in Melbourne are become out of reach.
Again much appreciated.
If the cracking is significant and structural (large cracks running through external walls, doors windows jamming) then the body corporate should be looking at repair and stabilisation work (underpinning). If the cracks are cosmetic to internal plaster with no other major symptoms, then thats a feature of life across some areas of drought affected Melbourne especially those on clay soils that expand and contract a lot with moisture variations.
If its the former , you could be looking at falling resale value as buyers start to resist an obviously flawed structure….or….you could be up for a hefty repair bill if the body corporate …..sorry but there arent many upsides to a significant structural problems.
If its the latter there is no reason for that to be a trigger to sell unless its becoming unaffordable for you.
Some parts of Sunshine seems to be pretty bad for movement of the slab. A fair few properties which I have looked at in the area has had significant amounts of cracking caused by a subsidance. I recently put in an offer on a property but when my building inspector checked it out he mentioned that the foundation had moved that much that it needed approx $150K worth of underpinning to be performed on the whole building. This of course would have been covered by owners corp (body corp) but the bill would have had to been split by all title owners.
I personally would see if you can get a quick estimate on how much the underpinning will cost and work out if its worth you keeping the property. The worse it gets, the harder its going to be to sell in the future. Of course if its only gong to cost you a small amount of money then it woudl definately be worth getting looked at and keeping the property. You really have to work out the costs and see what works out best.
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