Not even open heart surgery will get you out of Crownview contract

Mr O'Keefe, 67, lives in the Sydney suburb of Pyrmont in an apartment he bought because he was sick of waiting for Crownview to be habitable.

He bought a two-bedroom unit at Crownview in January 2022, putting down a 5 per cent deposit on the $700,000 asking price.

But after regular Mercury reports on the ongoing list of defects in the building and the delays in moving in Mr O'Keefe - who'd had open heart surgery late last year - chose to cut his losses.

"I'm over it - I want out," Mr O'Keefe said.

"You don't know what other defects are in there, do we?

"I had bypass surgery last November. I went down there to the developer's office - that Robert Huang. I undone the front of my shirt and showed him the big scar from open heart surgery and asked him if he'd release me on compassionate grounds.

"No, wouldn't budge on anything ... I couldn't get any compassion out of him."

Mr O'Keefe said he'd been allowed to inspect his apartment - which had been finished, even the dishwasher and washing machines had been installed - both before and after he paid a deposit.

However, he recalled he was stopped from going down to the basement to inspect the car park; a load-bearing column in the basement was the first of a number of faults found by Building Commissioner David Chandler.

Mr O'Keefe said it took a little while to realise how serious the issues at Crownview were, so at first the delays in moving in did not seem like a concern.

"They kept extending it all the time - we all believed it," he said.

"With COVID and the supply chain issues, there were no alarm bells going off. Then time just kept going by, there was extension after extension. I couldn't get any reason why there were these extensions."

Part of the reason for the extensions was that the Building Commissioner kept finding problems.

Mr O'Keefe is now in a fight to get his deposit back, an effort hampered by a contract that allows Mr Huang to keep extending the sunset date.

His Sydney legal team is also trying to work out whether Foye Legal, who handled the conveyancing for Crownview, is still holding Mr O'Keefe's deposit or if it has been passed onto Mr Huang.

"I'm too old for this," he said. "I don't need it."

Mr Huang was contacted for comment.