January 3, 2016 12:00am
Adams, a health care worker, paid $1.7 million for the colonial-era property, one of a number of publicly owned houses that had been used to accommodate housing commission tenants, in November, 2014.
He planned to turn it into a family home.
“They are the survivors of the series of buildings in The Rocks and Millers Point constructed by the local publican, William Cole, in the mid 1840s,” he said.
“The terrace of houses is a rare surviving example of modest housing built shortly after the introduction of building regulations in Sydney.”
Justice Preston said no other surviving mid-1840s examples have been located.
Most of the home’s original plaster on the internal ground and first floor walls was listed as “being of exceptional significance”.
Within a week of buying the property, Mr Adams removed skirting boards and other joinery, and internal plaster, the court heard.
Mr Adams defied the order and removed plaster from the walls in various rooms, a plaster board ceiling in one room and a lath framing from a ceiling in another room.
The council then sent Mr Adams a formal stop work order and he was charged with carrying development without consent.
Adams pleaded guilty last month and was given a 25 per cent discount on his sentence, but was ordered to pay Sydney City legal costs of $35,000.
Adams told the court he was waiting to see how much he would be fined so he could assess whether he could afford to pay for repair works.
IT was one of the last of its kind, a heritage-listed home that harked back to the early days of the colony.
And within its walls were preserved some of the few remaining examples of building techniques used to create our first residential homes.
However, just days after snapping up the Georgian terrace house on Argyle Place at Millers Point, new owner Lloyd Adams began gutting it, even ignoring orders from a council inspector to stop.
And within its walls were preserved some of the few remaining examples of building techniques used to create our first residential homes.
However, just days after snapping up the Georgian terrace house on Argyle Place at Millers Point, new owner Lloyd Adams began gutting it, even ignoring orders from a council inspector to stop.
We hate to say "we told you so", but the inevitable has happened - one of the heritage Millers Point properties has been vandalised by its new owner.
The 1840s terrace in Argyle Place sold for $1.7 million, but the new owner was find just $60,000 for defying a council "stop work" order and ripping out the original features including plaster work and timber joinery.
Barney Gardner asks:
If the owner was fined $60,000 (of a maximum $1.1million penalty) for vandalising this heritage property then how much should this now State Government and previous governments be fined for allowing all other heritage-listed properties in Millers Point, Dawes Point & The Rocks that have remained vacant for several years and left to rot and descend into dereliction due to the neglect of the Governments own obligations to maintenance and repairs, even whilst tenanted?
#savemillerspoint
RESOURCED: Millers Point: A rare heritage building has been illegally gutted http://7News.com.au #MillersPoint #7News
