A woman who bought an $8.5million dollar home on Sydney’s northern beaches has now spent millions of dollars fixing the defects she found after moving in.
Marcelle Carr bought the harbourside property in Seaforth, boasting a picturesque view of Middle Harbour as well as its own jetty and pontoon.
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom and four-car garage home also has a private pool and a 2000-bottle wine cellar.
Once she moved into the four-storey waterfront property, the dream turned into a nightmare as Mrs Carr soon realised it was riddled with defects.
A woman who bought an $8.5 million dollar home on Sydney’s affluent northern beaches has now spent millions of dollars fixing the defects she found after she’d moved in
Marcelle Carr bought the harbourside property in Seaforth, boasting an idyllic view of Middle Harbour as well as it’s own jetty and pontoon
Mrs Carr bought the house sitting at 4 Laura Street in 2012, when it was valued at $9 million, Australian Financial Review reported.
The house was advertised as a ‘magnificent, newly built’ mansion – but it was actually just a large-scale renovation of the original property.
It didn’t take long for her to see the defects, and she has since paid $1.9 million fixing the issues, and another $1.7 million in legal and consultancy fees over six years.
Mrs Carr said the house was her dream home and she was ‘amazed’ when she first saw it.
‘We put a lot of our assets, sold a lot of our assets to buy this, assuming that we would not have to spend any money on it. Then unfortunately at about the end of 2012, defects started to appear,’ she said.
First it was a problem with the air conditioning, then came the cracks in the marble bench tops.
It soon became clear to Mrs Carr that the problems were much worse than she imagined.
Condensation began to appear on the floor-to-ceiling windows, lights blew out, faulty drains and tiles were found on the ground floor balcony and there was an unconnected flue in the fireplace.
Other water damage also began to appear and hazardous mould was spreading through the home.
When Mrs Carr decided to take legal action against the previous owners, there were more hurdles to overcome.
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom and four-car garage home also has a private mooring pool and a 2000-bottle wine cellar
Once she moved into the four-storey waterfront property, the dream turned into a nightmare as Mrs Carr soon realised it was riddled with defects
The previous owner of the property, Joseph Pascali, chose to hire his son-in-law Jason Nowytarger, to handle the renovations.
But Mr Nowytarger acted as an unlicensed builder, hiring and supervising tradesman who worked on site.
The NSW Supreme Court also found that he had colluded with a licensed builder, Daniel Miller, to create fake contracts to obtain the necessary insurance.
Mr Miller was paid $6,000-$8,000 by Mr Nowytarger to give his name to the scam.
‘The contracts themselves were shams. They were concocted to conceal the fact that in substance the work had been done by Mr Nowytarger, who was neither a licensed builder nor an owner-builder,’ Justice Robert McDougall said in his judgement.
Mrs Carr bought the house sitting at 4 Laura Street in 2012, when it was valued at $9 million
Justice McDougall also noted that Mr Nowytarger’s wife was going to receive $4.17 million due to the property’s sale which may have motivated him to ‘do all that he could’ to ‘procure the necessary home warranty insurance certificate’.
On June 20, Justice McDougall found in favour of Mrs Carr and ordered Mr Miller to pay $576,966 for the defective building work.
Justice McDougall awarded Mrs Carr $1.1 million against Mr Nowytarger, or $1.09 million against his father-in-law, Mrs Pascali, to cover the difference between the price she paid for the house, and its true value.
But she will have difficulty getting money from Mr Miller, as he has since filed for bankruptcy on April 1.
Mr Nowytarger, who was found to be liable for the ‘incomplete work’ has also declared bankruptcy on April 17.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mr Pascali was guilty of any wrongdoing, only that he is now liable by default as a result of his son-in-law’s actions.
Mrs Carr said the judgment was a relief but stressed the nightmare wasn’t over.
‘Now, the battle isn’t over, I still have to try and do everything I can possibly do legally to ensure that I get the money from somebody,’ she said.
The house was advertised as a ‘magnificent, newly built’ property – but it was actually just a large-scale renovation of the 976 square metre property