PROJECTS: HISTORIC COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
Melbourne's historic commercial buildings are generally of consistent construction and those that have survived were generally of high quality at their time.
Unfortunately solid looking historic construction is often nothing of the sort; footings of unreinforced masonry and walls of solid masonry lack both strength and flexibility thus cracking is a major problem and nearly all of it is structural.
They do, however, tend to perform better than residential buildings, mainly due to their shear mass.
STATUTORY WARRANTEES
Commercial buildings are not subject to statutory warrantees and although this does not prohibit litigation under negligence most property owners take a pretty pragmatic approach to disputes and complicated disputes over minor matters are unusual.