Residents and owners of Sydney's Mascot Towers have another issue to deal with after an engineer found the evacuated building appears to be "moving in a downward motion".
The 10-year-old building was evacuated on June 14 after engineers became concerned about continued cracking in the primary support structure and facade masonry.
Since then, residents of its 132 units have been forced to sleep elsewhere, with costs quickly adding up as authorities scramble to determine who is at fault.
Mascot Towers' coordinating engineer has now identified a new issue along the northern and eastern boundaries of the complex.
"It appears that the building is moving in a downward motion," an update sent to residents and owners on Monday night said.
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The update didn't elaborate on "downward motion".
Two senior geotechnical engineers have been engaged and are visiting the site this week with help from Engineers Australia, the update said.Internal monitoring has been expanded, while equipment to measure external movement has been set up on Church Avenue and Bourke Road.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has dodged questions over whether residents who fled Sydney's Mascot Towers will eventually have to repay a loan from the government to fund emergency accommodation.
The state government on Sunday announced a multi-million dollar assistance package "until liability can be determined and these costs recovered".
The package offers one-off emergency loans to cover up to $400 per night for temporary accommodation, for a period of up to three months.
But it remains unclear what will happen if no one is found to be at fault or if insurance claims aren't paid out.
When asked to guarantee that residents themselves won't have to pay the money back, Ms Berejiklian was non-committal.
"We're actually working through those issues. The engineers haven't yet finished their assessments," she told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
"Whilst there's huge question marks as to who is accountable, I want to assure everybody the government will keep those who made those mistakes and haven't done their job properly accountable."
The government on the weekend also promised the biggest ever shake-up of the state's construction industry, including an annual audit of 30 per cent of certifiers.
Ms Berejiklian agreed the government's decision to step in was "controversial" but said these were "exceptional circumstances".
"We hope the residents will be back in their units as soon as possible but we don't know how long that's going to take and I don't want anyone feeling extra stress about where they're spending the night whilst this uncertainty is there," she said.
The money for the loans will come from the interest accumulated in the NSW Government's rental bonds fund.
Residents said the deal would help them move forward but they still wanted answers.
Fabiano Santos and his partner bought their "dream home" in the damaged towers just two months ago but are now sleeping on a friend's couch.
"Its starting to make us sick, that we have our dream home for two months and now we're homeless," he told reporters.
"It's a lot to digest."
