Thirteen days before Christmas the 33 owners of a block of apartments in Frankston South received a warning that ruined their festive season.
Their block of apartments, which was barely five years old, posed a “danger to life arising out of the condition of building”, according to an emergency order issued by Frankston City Council.
Owners of an apartment block in Frankston say they can't afford to foot the bill for removing flammable cladding.CREDIT:PAUL JEFFERS
The risk to their “life and safety” was in part due to the use of expanded polystyrene, a type of cladding that is combustible and increases the likelihood of fire spreading more quickly.
Expanded polystrene, which is generally covered with render when used in a building, is allowed under the National Construction Code but typically not considered safe for use on multi-storey buildings.
A Frankston City Council spokesman said the apartments would not have been compliant at the time they were built.
Apartmentowners were given seven days to carry out extensive building works. Fail to comply, they were warned, and they faced fines of up to $80,000 each.
The Victorian Building Authority employed a 24-hour fire warden so residents could stay in their homes while the emergency fire safety measures were addressed.
But the biggest shock for owners was learning they would foot the bill for building works, which have already stretched to more than $150,000.
“We can’t afford this, people are going to lose their homes,” said Craig Fitch, chairman of Summardai Apartments’ Owners Corporation.
“Who is going to pay for it?” demanded apartment owner Kerry Ould at a tense meeting with the VBA and Frankston City Council last month.
This was "the really hard end of the stick", the deputy head of the VBA’s state-wide cladding audit, Luke Exell told the meeting: "The problem lies with the owners”.
Mr Exell said under the Building Act combustible materials should not be used in external walls unless there were strict safety systems.
But he said a 2017 Supreme Court decision had made it “absolutely clear” that the VBA did not have the power to direct a builder or building surveyor to fix defective building work after an occupancy permit for a building had been issued.
“I put my super into this, I have got nothing now,” Ms Ould later told The Age. “I would not have believed that people could be treated like this. You buy a property that is four years old and you have got no protection.”
Mr Exell told the meeting the main role of the VBA was to hold building practitioners to account.
“There has been a lot of criticism of the VBA over recent years ... and we have to do better...I would acknowledge there are system-wide failures that have led to this point,” he said.
A different type of flammable cladding was used in London's Grenfell tower, wherea fire in June 2017killed 72 people, a blaze at the Lacrosse building in Docklands and this month’s fire at Spencer Street’s Neo200 apartments.
A cladding audit ordered by Planning Minister Richard Wynne in the wake of the Grenfell inferno has reviewed more than 2000 buildings.
It has identified 44 private buildings among the “highest risk” of fire and 21 government buildings at “higher risk”.
The emergency order said there was "danger to life arising out of the condition of the building".CREDIT:PAUL JEFFERS
Michael Buxton, an emeritus professor of planning and environment at RMIT, said property owners were finding themselves in a “terrible situation”. He accused the state government of washing its hands of responsibility.
“People in Melbourne are entitled to expect their buildings are safe – it’s not like it is Bangladesh,” he said.
“There needs to be a new legal framework to provide a financial solution for this, with the government chipping in.
“I think this is turning out to be one of the greatest scandals we have ever seen in the building industry.”
A former director of the company that built the Frankston South apartments, Emad Faraq, said the cladding used was fire-rated and considered acceptable at the time.
But Mr Fitch said he believed some fire-rated cladding had been substituted with a cheaper non-compliant product that was flammable.
Building surveyor Kamran Basiri issued the occupancy permit for the property in 2013.
He said the Building Code of Australia's performance requirements did not restrict the use of combustible cladding.
“We are all waiting for the government to act,” Mr Basiri said.
Mr Wynne said Victoria was leading the country in taking action, including fixing every state government building affected and pushing for a national ban on flammable cladding.
The building system was there to protect consumers and “where we need to strengthen the system, we will”, he said.
But Opposition planning spokesman Tim Smith said Mr Wynne was refusing to help the Frankfurt South residents ensure their homes were safe.
