‘Tiles were slipping off the roof’: Neighbours in nightmare battle over luxury Sydney development

It was touted as the best of seniors living – a 10-apartment designer complex with curved balconies and palm trees, nestled between Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay in Sydney’s east.

Unless you live next door.

Neighbours’ problems began when excavation for the O’Sullivan Road complex started in 2023.

Neighbour Hugh Woodgate says residents found “the windows would rattle; things would shake off the shelves; tiles were slipping off the roof”. Reina Nicholls, who lives in a 1920s Californian bungalow on the eastern edge, says: “This starts at 7am and goes until 5pm, six days a week. It just makes your own home an intolerable environment.”

The builder, Thomas Cull, has a history of regulatory issues, construction mishaps, lawsuits and tens of thousands of dollars in fines. Cull is the director of Alta Vale as well as Alta Vale Residential, a building company whose licence was suspended late last year.

Cull is to be disqualified from being a director of a corporation holding a licence from May.

Alta Vale promises “timeless results”, its website says. “Plus, we’re perfectionists – it’s our secret to building the best in Sydney.”

One of the sub-penthouse apartments was sold for $6.9 million in June 2024 and boasted a “private sanctum” experience with a TV room, designer kitchen with marble island benchtops, a “lushly layered terrace” and an “elegant glass-fronted walk-in pantry”.

Ten apartments designed by architect Luigi Rosselli would be built over three storeys with 20 basement parking spaces, the development application lodged with Woollahra Council shows.

The demolition, excavation and construction of the estimated $11.3 million build caused the garage wall of a home on the western side to collapse, alleges Woodgate, a neighbour and Woollahra councillor. In February 2024, SafeWork issued an improvement notice to Alta Vale for the damage at Woodgate’s property.

“You must, so far as is reasonably practicable, minimise the risk associated with the potential structural collapse of the garage structure,” the notice stated.

On her property, Nicholls alleges damage stemming from the construction includes the collapse of a boundary wall shared with the building site, and cracking along interior plaster walls and exterior brick walls.

Cull has denied responsibility for any of the neighbours’ damage. He is seeking to overturn his suspension in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

In Waterloo and Northbridge

In October 2023, the Building Commission found Alta Vale Residential breached statutory warranty by failing to undertake compliant building work and failing to comply with a rectification order at a George Street apartment block in Waterloo. Alta Vale Residential was fined $50,000, while Cull was fined $40,000.

One of the 12 serious defects discovered in the Waterloo apartments included “uncontrolled cracking” up to four millimetres wide in the rooftop slab, resulting in water leaking through to the units.

In 2020, Alta Vale Residential was named as the first defendant in a case brought by the owners’ corporation of a Northbridge apartment building which alleged the builder and developer were responsible for $5.1 million in defects.

Alta Vale Residential brought a cross-claim against its nine subcontractors.

Alta Vale Residential’s licence was suspended on December 18 last year. Last month, orders were issued by the NSW Supreme Court for liquidators to wind up the company.

Work continues in Bellevue Hill

Despite the suspension, construction on O’Sullivan Road continued over the new year. The neighbours were confused. How could tradies still be operating under the supervision of a head contractor whose licence had been suspended?

“I have spoken to the builder and developer and they are licensed. The confusion is that the licence under ‘Alta Vale Residential’ does no longer exist and it is just ‘Alta Vale’,” the development’s private certifier told Woodgate in a January 30 email.

“I also need to be very clear, this has nothing to do with my role as the principal certifier. This would be a Fair Trading matter.”

A Building Commission NSW spokesman said the conditions applied to Cull’s licence were based on his overseeing rectification of the Waterloo property before his qualification is cancelled from May.

“Thomas Bernard Cull is disqualified from being a director of a corporation that holds a licence from May 1, 2026. When this decision comes into effect the associated licences of Alta Vale Pty Ltd, of which Mr Cull is a director, will be automatically cancelled,” he said.

“Based on new information against Mr Cull and Alta Vale Pty Ltd – including that he could be acting outside of the conditions placed on his licence – Building Commission NSW has commenced additional disciplinary proceedings.”

Cull said he was not the nominated supervisor or licensed builder on O’Sullivan Road: “I am not acting outside the conditions placed on my licence. I moved to northern NSW and do not supervise any building work in Sydney or northern NSW.”

His failure to rectify the defects in the Waterloo property was caused by a four-year legal dispute with his former business partner, Vaughan Blank, Cull said.

“If I was not in that dispute, I should have had the money to comply with the [rectification order]. I tried to explain that to the Building Commission and asked them for more time, but they commenced disciplinary action.”

Blank did not respond to the Herald’s inquiries.

Cull was the nominated supervisor for Alta Vale Residential. Steven Ho-Chung is the supervisor for Alta Vale. Chung was a director of Alta Vale Residential for 13 days in 2021.

Alta Vale Residential’s building licence was obtained under the name TC Build, another company of Cull’s. That company was constructing a house on Curlewis Street in Bondi in late 2020 when the neighbouring property collapsed while two people were inside.

SafeWork NSW concluded it was the builders’ excavation that compromised the site and led to the collapse. It also found TC Build did not follow advice to stop work until structural engineers could assess the site.

Both project manager Cull and site manager Neil O’Brien pleaded guilty and were fined $30,000 and $15,000, respectively.

In a separate incident five years ago, Cull came under scrutiny for another project in Bondi at Lamrock Avenue. Cracks appeared on properties neighbouring a building site, which prompted the builder to fill in a giant hole dug for an underground car park.

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