Australian Property News

High-fronted gutters damaging NSW houses

Posted on Wednesday, September 22 2010 at 10:16 AM

High-fronted gutters damaging thousands of New South Wales homes is a problem that State Government must acknowledge, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Kaye claims that even as an Office of Fair Trading survey reveals that three-quarters of residents with guttering problems experienced damage to their homes, the NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge refuses to implement a preventative solution.

The solution would mean blocking the sale of high-fronted gutter systems that put these houses at risk and cause non-compliance with the building codes and standards, he said.

"With 95 per cent of gutters sold in NSW being high fronted and almost all of them fitted in a way that pushes overflow back into the building, this state faces an insurance and building repair crisis,” said Kaye.

Replacing or refitting the gutters for new houses constructed in the past 12 months could cost as high as $67.5 million and the cost of water damage from not fixing the problem could be much greater, he said.

“Fixing these gutters directly to the facia boards without a system of flashing is dangerous and does not comply with the building code or the Australian standard,” he said.

He called for a stop to the manufacturers of these gutters selling systems that put houses at risk of water penetration.