NSW Our roof literally blew off.

[justlovejoy]

Hi all we live in North Curl Curl, well we did until the recent storms!

The property was rented and we have lived there for 7 years. We frequently notified the landlord and agent of issues with the house and on the last property inspection by the Principle my wife and I indicated our concerns about cracking around the roof perimeter only to be told "they are settling cracks"!

In the recent storm we literally lost the entire roof and the Structural report that we have commissioned says the roof hold down structures were insufficient for this size and type of roof, they were held together by nails!

The landlord and Agent have walked away saying we have no case against them! My wife was 4 feet away from the crash zone when it happened, is there any responsibility towards psychological shock and trauma to her and the children? The rook landed in and on the pool, the results could have been much worse.

I am unsure of what to do next hence researching the subject and finding this forum, can you help or if not do you have contacts that are able to advise us on what we could do next?

Lovejoy

 

[cljames]

Call the Tenants Union of NSW

 

[Tim W]

In the recent storm we literally lost the entire roof and the Structural report that we have commissioned says the roof hold down structures were insufficient for this size and type of roof, they were held together by nails!

How old is the house? If it's pre-BCA (say, pre-1988-ish), then plain old nails might have been OK back at the time it was built?
And if house is really old, then nails might have been all the technology there was.

My wife was 4 feet away from the crash zone when it happened, is there any responsibility towards psychological shock and trauma to her and the children?

prima facie, no.
Sad to say, a landlord does not generally owe a tenant a duty of care to prevent them getting a fright
from an Act of God that was not, in general, reasonably foreseeable.
Even if a plaintiff had a big block of medical evidence to support the claim of injury which, I'm guessing, there isn't in this case.
(That said, yes, they can have a duty to repair the house, if practical to do so)

I am unsure of what to do next.....

My suggestion for what to do next is this - start looking for somewhere else to live.
Chances are, your un(der)insured landlord will look at this as an opportunity to knock down and redevelop in a hot market
without so many of those pesky planning controls.