Helen and Rob downsized to an apartment. Then a $15 million bill arrived

Exclusive: Helen and Rob Goddard wanted to do the “responsible thing” by downsizing from their family home into a two-bedroom apartment.

The Canberra retirees have paid dearly for this decision.

Months after moving in, their high-rise city apartment building was slapped with a $15 million construction bill to replace non-compliant cladding, leaving the Goddards to slowly pay off a $78,000 special levy for the next decade.

“It is absolutely outrageous. We’re just ordinary people who downsized, and governments Australia-wide want us to do this,” Helen told nine.com.au.

“I know we’re not alone. 

“We’ve got lots of friends who are going through the same thing.”

The Goddards bought the apartment in Canberra’s city centre in 2023, hoping to enjoy an affordable lifestyle during their retirement.

The building was constructed in 2009, but the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster prompted a nationwide reassessment of fireproof cladding.

Helen and Rob’s home was deemed unsafe and needed urgent construction to replace it with non-combustible cladding. 

A later discovery of mould sent the eventual bill even higher.

The final price was a staggering $14,835,688.60, plus $503,083.70 in interest.

The executive committee secured a loan from the ACT government with an interest rate of 4.8 per cent. For their unit, the Goddards have been forced to cough up a total of $78,130.

‘It was like being in jail’

Construction was a nightmare for the apartment owners.

Scaffolding blocked access to the balcony and black tarp was partially obscured the windows.

“We were in darkness and couldn’t use our balcony for nearly 300 days,” Helen said.

“We had a Christmas and Easter without access to our balcony.

The couple, along with 183 other property owners, felt helpless as construction dragged on.

She recalled one young couple who were renting ended their lease early after it became too much.

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“It was like being in jail, they couldn’t sit on their balcony and they had a dog,” she said.

“I have a suspicion they probably weren’t the only ones who moved out.”

The couple had accepted it was a necessary renovation but were floored by the price and ongoing financial and emotional difficulties.

Helen said the executive committee – which she did not join – “refused” to share financial documents relating to the construction work and timeline.

Selling was out of the question. “Who would want to buy a property with such a debt?” she asked.

Construction is now over, but the cost continues for Helen and Rob.

Strata fees eclipse cost of owning a home

The couple had been warned about potential cladding issues when inspecting Annual General Meeting (AGM) documents from prior years when they bought, but said they were assured by the real estate agent it would be around $60,000 per unit if it ever needed fixing.

The possibility of replacing the cladding was first mentioned during the 2017 AGM.

It was raised again in 2019 after a fire engineer report indicated the fire risk was “significant”, while a 2021 meeting noted repairs could cost up to $10 million.

This would have amounted to about $54,000 per unit.

Helen said the sale price was reduced to reflect this figure.

However, the Goddards were blindsided when it came time to pay for the repairs and were slapped with a bill of nearly $80,000.

Each quarter, their strata fees now amount to $3518 – including a $1912.50 repayment for the cladding.

That is a yearly cost of nearly $15,000 just for strata payments, which is on top of their mortgage.

Once the cladding repairs are fully paid, the Goddards worry another special levy may come their way.

The committee is now discussing adding commercial electric vehicle (EV) chargers in the building at a cost of $30,000.

“We’re not wealthy – we just downsized as a responsible thing to do,” Helen added.

“Since we have done that here in Canberra, strata managers, together with our executive committee, have contributed to us wondering why we downsized when these individuals have such control over many elements of our existence in an apartment.”

‘Executive committees have too much power’

The thorny issue of executive committees is at the heart of Helen and Rob’s strata strife.

The couple say there should be greater transparency between ECs and non-committee owners and tighter regulation on who can join.

“I firmly believe that whether you’re a volunteer or not, you should be qualified to do the job at hand,” Helen said.

“It seems that many of the strata management problems these days are caused by ECs being untrained and in control of finances and administration without any framework.

“No strata manager should be allowed on the ‘shop floor’ without training.”

The Goddards raised their concerns in a submission to the ACT’s inquiry into the management of strata properties in April.

The final report delivered 33 recommendations to overhaul unit title management – including mandating that strata managers are licensed and the appointment of a strata commissioner to handle disputes.

An estimated one in six Australians, about 4.2 million people, live in strata or community-titled properties.

Helen said there should be stronger, unified national laws to protect each and every one of them.