Australia, June 30 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 30:

1.On 28 April 2025, I delivered my reasons for judgment in the proceeding. [1] At the conclusion of the Reasons, I made the following orders:

"(1) Pursuant to s 61(2) of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW):

(a) Mr George Dahrie (or some such other registered Design Practitioner as the defendants nominate) is to prepare, at the defendants' cost, a Regulated Design to address the matters referred to by the building experts in items 4.3 and 31.1 in the plaintiff's Updated Scott Schedule within 14 days of the date of these reasons and supply them to the parties.

(b) Mr Stephen Bolt, of the firm WT Partnership, is to prepare, at the shared costs of the parties, a report quantifying the costs of such Regulated Design within 7 days of receipt of the report referred to in (a) and to provide a copy of such report to the parties.

(2) Within 5 business days of its receipt of the report in order (1)(b) above, the plaintiff is to make submissions on:

(a) the quantification of costs specifically for items 4.3 and 31.1; and

(b) the final quantification of costs generally, as well as pre-judgment interest and costs in accordance with these reasons.

(3) Within a further 5 days of receipt of the plaintiff's submissions the subject of orders 2(a)-(b) above, the defendants are to make submissions on:

(a) the quantification of costs for items 4.3 and 31.1 specifically; and

(b) the final quantification of costs generally, as well as pre-judgment interest and costs.

(4) All of the reports and submissions referred to in these orders are to be copied to the Associate to Abadee DCJ on the dates they are prepared.

(5) Subject to any further application, any continuing dispute about the costs for items 4.3 and 31.1 specifically, the final quantification of costs generally, pre-judgment interest and costs will be determined on the papers.

(6) Liberty to apply on two days' notice."

2. The principal matter left outstanding from the Reasons was quantification of the costs of rectification of two items (items 4.3 and 31.1 of the updated Scott Schedule) of works in respect to which I made findings about 'Major Defects'. The works were in the nature of waterproofing remediation to unit 4 on level 1 and unit 31 on level 11 of the subject apartment. Secondary to the quantification of those items was the final quantification of rectification costs generally, taking into account determinations I had made in the Reasons where the parties were in dispute about whether or not there were major defects in respect to certain items. A feature of those calculations was the use of an escalation percentage that was different to that which had been deployed by Mr Madden, a quantity surveyor, in his report that the owners corporation relied upon at trial.

3. The issues of pre-judgment interest and costs were also left outstanding for further submissions.

4. The Regulated Design and Mr Bolt's report (referred to in order 1) were received.

5. Through its legal representatives, the plaintiff (the owners corporation) provided written submissions on 21 May 2025 (in conformity with order 2). These have been marked (MFI 8). The second defendant supplied written submissions on 28 May 2025 (MFI 9). With additional leave, the owners corporation filed a submission in reply to that of the second defendant's submissions (MFI 10). No submissions were received from the first defendant.

Quantification of rectification costs for items 4.3 and 31.1 of the Updated Scott Schedule

6. The Regulated Design for the two items, drawing no. ARCH-4600, was prepared by Mr Pavlo Doroch, of Doroch Architects Pty Ltd. Mr Doroch also prepared a design compliance declaration relating to drawing no. ARCH-4600, dated 7 May 2025.

7. Mr Bolt prepared a report dated 14 May 2025, which costed the Regulated Design.

8. Leave is granted to the owners corporation to reopen its case to rely upon the Regulated Design and Mr Bolt's report. They will become, respectively, Exhibits H and J.

9. The owners corporation effectively adopts both Exhibit H and J.

10. The critical outcome from Mr Bolt's report is his opinion that the cost of rectifying the defects in items 4.3 and 31.1, with reference to the Regulated Design, is $12,860.59. That figure takes into account trade costs, escalation costs, preliminaries, overhead and profit, contingencies and superintendent design and professional fees or costs. This breakdown is contained in paragraph 5 of the Executive Summary to the report.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1971e6eadf9d47c2c44772b2)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.