Elderly homeowner is locked in infuriating two-year battle with building’s strata manager to fix her leaky apartment so waterlogged mushrooms have grown from the walls
A 75-year-old woman is desperately pleading for her strata manager to fix her apartment after spending two years in temporary accommodation.
Nicky Sinclair, 75, was forced to move out of her apartment in Drummoyne, in Sydney’s inner-west, in February 2024 following a series of structural issues.
Ms Sinclair had bought the two-bedroom ‘forever home’ in 2022, but soon noticed water would pool on the inside floor near her balcony door whenever it rained.
The build-up of moisture resulted in mushrooms sprouting from her floorboards and walls.
Despite a flood report being ordered by the resident before Ms Sinclair, the apartment’s strata report had been a clean slate.
She hadn’t requested a building inspection report.
‘I assumed, maybe wrongly, that the strata report would reveal any of the things that would have been happening,’ Ms Sinclair told A Current Affair on Tuesday.
Ms Sinclair’s bathroom was later ruined when she attempted to run a bath, only to find the bathtub’s base was rotted and leaked water into the rest of the bathroom.
Nicky Sinclair (above) claimed her strata was ordered to fix the issues with her unit within six months but, two years later, she is still living in an Airbnb with her dog
Ms Sinclair has been unable to live in her Sydney apartment since 2024 after leaks caused mushrooms (above) to appear from her floorboards and sewage to seep through the floor
The construction defects with the apartment did not stop there.
The flat above her unit was undergoing flood testing and, while Ms Sinclair was out, the water and dye leaked through her ceiling and drenched her bedroom.
The situation drastically worsened in February 2022 when Ms Sinclair woke to sewage seeping through her floor.
She claimed her strata manager, Conti Strata, initially refused to fix the issue so she was forced to take the matter to court.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered Ms Sinclair’s apartment be fixed within six months.
Now, more than two years later, Ms Sinclair is living in her ninth Airbnb and her unit is unrepaired.
‘I don’t have my belongings. I think my whole life’s packed up in two containers in storage. And it just is upsetting, it’s horrible,’ she said.
Ms Sinclair said she and her dog, Poppy, are desperate to live in their own home.
‘It’s just been a nightmare, a total nightmare,’ she said.
Conti Strata blamed the delay on new legislation that ‘led to a raft of regulatory, design and planning approval hurdles that can blow out timelines’.
‘That also makes getting agreement from a whole range of apartment block owners to cover those rocketing costs increasingly complex and contentious, causing further delays,’ it said.
The strata manager added its insurers have extended Ms Sinclair’s ‘temporary accommodation and storage arrangements’.
‘Given all she has gone through we also recognise Miss Sinclair simply wants to return to her home,’ Conti Strata said.
‘While the building’s Owners Corporation will make the final decision on approving repairs and signing off costs, for our part, we will do all that is in our power to support that process.’
