Register watch, September 2026

Added: ten orders, seven buildings

Three buildings received two orders each. A building at 141 Darkes Road, Kembla Grange, near Wollongong, received a rectification order and a prohibition order on the same day. Two rectification orders cover the four units at 4 Cypress Parade, Bowral, in the Southern Highlands. 53 to 55 Gerard Street, Cremorne, on the Lower North Shore, received two rectification orders on 25 September, each naming a different company. The Mount Hutton building from last month’s issue is back: the register now records a condition added to its stop work order. Each line links to the official register entry, which names the responsible parties and the works required.

Building by building: what the orders say

Each order on the register comes with the full order document. We read all ten. The details below come from those documents, not from the register summary.

141 Darkes Road, Kembla Grange: 108 units, not yet occupied

The development is five buildings with 108 units and a basement, under construction since August 2021. Officers inspected it on 8 July 2026. The rectification order lists waterproofing defects in the basement, a set of fire safety defects (the fire pump room ventilation and the sprinklers not built to the approved designs, deteriorated fire doors between the basement and an exit stair, unprotected openings in fire resisting construction, and bushfire protection measures not meeting AS 3959), and poorly executed structural work, including a slab repair done with non complying materials. The developer has eight months to fix it. The prohibition order issued the same day means no occupation certificate can be issued, and no strata plan registered, until the Commission lifts it.

33 Euston Road, Alexandria: 45 units, occupied

Three residential buildings with 45 units, four commercial units and a basement car park. The building is complete and occupied. After an inspection on 18 June 2026 the order identifies water getting into bedrooms: gaps, cracks and failed sealant at the window trims, breaks in the external waterproofing, and a blistering, delaminating membrane. Three months to rectify.

101 Best Road, Seven Hills: occupied, inspected twice

A completed and occupied building with apartments, a shop and a car park. Officers inspected it in January 2024 and again in May 2026. The order covers glass balustrades that are not properly fixed and can move, balconies without adequate falls or overflows, water entering the fire isolated stairs and the basement, basement drains that lead nowhere, and exposed reinforcement at the stairwell. The order document gives 120 days to comply.

53 to 55 Gerard Street, Cremorne: 8 units

A four storey building with eight units and basement parking, started in May 2020. The two orders issued on 25 September are addressed to two different companies but describe the same defects, found at an inspection on 30 June 2026: water coming into the basement main switchboard room through a concealed crack, with no floor drain; water seeping from the base of basement walls; a gap in fire rated construction; exposed reinforcement at a slab edge in the car park; and no mechanical ventilation in the switchboard room. Eight months to rectify.

13 to 21 Putland Close, Kirrawee: 4 apartments over a childcare centre

A childcare centre and two commercial units on the ground floor, with four apartments above. After an inspection in December 2025 the order requires balcony overflows, which were never installed, and the repair of leaks through external walls, windows and the roof, including a cracked concrete parapet. Three months.

4 Cypress Parade, Bowral: four new units

These two orders come under a different law, section 49B of the Home Building Act 1989, which covers buildings outside the apartment building regime. One order covers units 1 and 2: a steel beam carrying first floor loads sits on compressible packing, so the load does not transfer to the structure below as designed. The other covers units 3 and 4: roof insulation laid with gaps, tears and poor laps. Sixty days to fix.

14 to 17 Herd Street, Mount Hutton: the stop work order, eased

This building, four dwellings over a basement, has been under a stop work order since 7 July 2026, because work started before the required designs and compliance declarations were lodged. A rectification order followed on 3 August, in last month’s issue. The new entry, dated 27 August, adds a condition: the stop work order no longer applies to the rectification work, so the defects can be fixed while all other building work stays stopped.

The pattern: water

Water is the common thread. Five apartment buildings received new rectification orders under the apartment buildings law this month, and all five orders list waterproofing defects: Kembla Grange, Alexandria, Seven Hills, Cremorne and Kirrawee. Two of them, Kembla Grange and Cremorne, also have fire safety defects. Two of the buildings, Alexandria and Seven Hills, are already complete and occupied, which means the owners and tenants live with the defects while they are fixed.

For a buyer, an order is a strong signal to ask the strata committee and the selling agent three things: whether the work has been done, who is paying for it, and whether a special levy is planned. The order document lists every defect, so you can check each one against what you see at an inspection.

Removed: six orders, five buildings

Orders leave the register without a stated reason; removal usually follows compliance or replacement. Two orders from July 2023 at 144 to 150 Walker Street, North Sydney, are gone, along with entries at Beecroft, Port Macquarie, Bonnyrigg and Wahroonga. A removal is good news for a building, but the history matters when you are buying into it, which is why we keep it here. These orders no longer appear on the register; the dates shown are the original issue dates.

The bigger picture

2026 is already the register’s biggest year by a wide margin: 53 of the 136 published orders were issued this year, against 36 for all of 2024, the next busiest year. Our full analysis of the register is here: the defect orders analysis. What all 134 orders on the register say about what goes wrong: we read every one. Last month’s changes are in Register watch, August 2026.

Method: two complete reads of the public register (nsw.gov.au, CC BY 4.0), 14 August and 27 September 2026, compared entry by entry. Every added entry and its full order document was opened on 1 October 2026 to confirm it is live, to check its issue date and to read the defects listed. An order on the register is a fact about the building’s regulatory history, not a verdict on any individual apartment. Reuse welcome with attribution to PropertyFlags and Building Commission NSW: hello@propertyflags.com.au.

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Sources

• NSW Register of building work orders (Building Commission NSW) · every added order in this issue links to its entry on this register

All sources queried or checked on 1 October 2026. If a figure on this page and a source disagree, tell us at hello@propertyflags.com.au and we will correct the page.

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