Eastgate Apartments Bondi Junction - Residents' Website
NOTICE - Monday 25 MAY 2009 |
NOTICE - Friday 22 MAY 2009
It has come to our attention that Brian Bugden of Echelon Loss Adjustors is receiving and processing claim notifications on behalf of the insurer from EVERYONE regarding their losses as a result of the explosion. They haven't as yet determined who is responsible for our losses but are very close and they will be accepting our claims pending this determination.
Who we are?
Sherry Huang (2207) and Wayne Baffsky (2512) are trying to find a way to help the 300 or so of us who had been thrown into the street as a result of the explosion. The exact number of people affected is still unclear, essentially, because no one has made any effort to find out. No one appears to want to take any responsibility. Or, no one considers it their responsibility to enquire as to the welfare of hundreds of people made homeless by what appears to be the (legally) negligent act of some plumbers who were working in our building. (They are recovering well we believe.)
Despite there being reports in various papers, television news, weeklies and on radio stations still no one has seen fit to enquire as to our welfare or whether we need help or support of any kind. Wayne has been quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald a couple of times thanks to Georgie Robinson and he has been interviewed twice on 2UE ‘s Steve Price show and twice on the ABC's Richard Glover show. Still no one has come forward to offer assistance.
The local Council, the management committee of our units and now the media are all conspicuous by their silence. In these circumstances it is apparent that we have no one to help us but ourselves.
To this end Wayne and Sherry and soon after Corinne and now Martin have joined together to try and provide us with some help.
What are we trying to achieve?
There is one thing that is clear - we have to help ourselves, and the best way to achieve anything is through acting as a group. What we primarily want to achieve is to try and get some money to make up for losses which are not covered by any of the current insurance policies, that is:
- What we have been forced to spend unnecessarily, and
- Losses we have occured as a consequence of having to relocate ourselves after the explosion.
You may visit the Claims Info page for more information on the types of losses resident's are suffering or are likely to suffer.
Another thing we want to achieve is to provide a place for all displaced residents to share information (not rumors) and keep up to date with what's happening. We hope that this website can help bridge the gap of communication that exists at the moment.
Why are we doing this?
It has been suggested by some that we can achieve this by getting government assistance or assistance from other groups. This is not correct. There is no one who will assist us.
The only way that we can get back the money we have spent or the losses that we have incurred are by having a solicitor act for us.
You can do this individually, of course, but it means you will have to pay all the costs yourself and this could be very expensive. It seemed the sensible option was to form a group and share the expenses and it seemed that Wayne was the person to find a solicitor.
By engaging a solicitor, we also are getting experts to act on our behalf, to keep all parties (DPS, insurance companies etc.) in check and to ensure that the whole process of getting us back into our apartments runs smoothly. We would also like the solicitor to try and get us early access to our units and also to have those responsible provide us with timely information about what is happening.
Essentially a solicitor will act on our behalf and in our interests – something no-one else seems willing to do.
What has been done so far?
Wayne has worked in the law for over 30 years but his main experience is in criminal law and he has only limited experience in insurance law. So Wayne spoke to a number of solicitors to try and find the one who would be best for us. After speaking with about six solicitors he spoke with Cameron Leaver, a partner at Hicksons Lawyers, and also the brother of the partner of one of our tenants.
Mr. Leaver has considerable experience, as do other solicitors in his firm, in insurance law. He generally acts for insurance companies but it is this very experience that would be so useful to us. He also suggested an approach which involved speaking with the plumber's insurers to create a fund without us resorting to litigation, at least, not at first. He also suggested we use an investigator, just as the insurance company would and does, to obtain statements from those who can offer information on what occurred and also obtain for us all relevant documents that are in existence.
Hicksons lawyers seemed an appropriate firm to represent our interests so this was suggested to others who were interested in joining our group and eventually an employed solicitor, Mr. Christopher Price, came and spoke at one of our meetings as Mr. Leaver wasn't available at such short notice.
Visit The Legal Process page for more information on the legal process we intend to embark upon.
What do we still need to do?
Currently, residents from 20 individual units (but more people) have committed to joining our group and engaging these solicitors.
If you want to join us or are interested in joining us then the following is what we propose in regard to the lawyers:
The lawyers require an amount of $7,000 prior to commencing work. This is common to all law firms. We initially thought if we could get 40 people contributing $100 we would have enough. But the commercial reality is that we need about 40 people contributing $200.