Michael Koundouris is fighting a rectification order issued by the ACT government over leaks in a Turner apartment building, in a case believed to be the most time-consuming on record in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
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The tribunal held its final of 28 hearing days on Thursday into a dispute over problems with leaking and cracked masonry at the Manhattan apartments in Moore Street, Turner.
It came as the ACT Supreme Court reserved its decision in July in a separate case concerning Mr Koundouris, in which the residents of the Lagani apartments in Braddon took the developer to court, claiming about $1.3 million and alleging waterproofing defects, structural-steel corrosion and cracked masonry.
In the Manhattan case, the ACT Construction Occupations Registrar issued a rectification order in November 2013 to fix defects in the 32-apartment building, including cracking in the facade, waterproofing failures in the bathrooms, movement of water from balconies into apartments, and water entering the car-park roof affecting steel support beams.
Residents say they have spent years trying to have the problems fixed since the building was signed off in 2003.
But Mr Koundouris has appealed the rectification order in the tribunal, claiming it was issued after the 10-year limit so is not valid. He has also claimed the problems were a result of faulty maintenance rather than faulty construction.
Resident Mark Farrell told the tribunal the building lacked waterproofing membranes in walls, balcony insulation specified in the original building plans, and drainage to stop water entering the basement.
"This building has not been built in a skilful way. It leaks water all over the place," he said, accusing Mr Koundouris of trying to "slither down some channel of loopholes" to escape his responsibilities. "Our simple statement would be, he should man up," Mr Farrell said.
Mr Koundouris was not a credible witness and his claim that he had added Xypex to the concrete as waterproofing should not be believed, Mr Farrell said. Even if Xypex had been used, a waterproof membrane should also have been laid.
He also questioned the validity of the certificate of occupancy, given it was signed by Mr Koundouris as owner, when the company, Moore Street Pty Ltd, was actually owned by others in the Koundouris family,
Mr Koundouris's barrister, Christopher Erskine, took issue with Mr Farrell's "emotive language", saying Mr Koundouris rejected "such scandalous allegations" as fraud and deliberate intent to delay and mislead.
The government and residents say the 10-year limit to issue a rectification order starts from the date the certificate of occupancy is issued. In this case, it was just within 10 years of the 2003 certificate of occupancy.
But Mr Koundouris argued that the 10-year limit should be triggered by the dates when the specific parts of the building work that led to problems were done, and he said they were finished well before the certificate of occupancy was issued, so falling outside the 10-year limit.
He said failure to build in accordance with approved plans was an "item by item offence" and must be treated that way by the tribunal when it considered the 10-year limit.
Mr Erskine also insisted the balconies had substantially complied with the building plans, as required, and said it was reasonable for Mr Koundouris to rely on the expertise of people doing specific jobs on the build.
