Save Mascot Towers families. The NSW government must act.

You most likely will have heard of Mascot Towers, the $53m+ housing debacle that could have been avoided if only the government had regulated the construction industry.

We are 132 families that were evacuated from our homes on a cold winter night in June 2019 as there were fears the building could collapse. Since then, we have been locked out of our homes and we have been living this nightmare for almost three years. 

Mascot Towers' Problems

Mascot Towers’ problems are deemed by the insurance company to be caused by subsidence and therefore we are excluded from making a claim on the insurance policy. Instead, we have had to bear the cost of fixing the building, funding a legal battle and maintaining all the ordinary everyday living expenses.

After extensive investigation it is now evident that the cost of fixing Mascot Towers and regaining an occupancy certificate is beyond our 132 families. The building has been marketed for sale and even developers that expressed an interest were only interested in acquiring the land so they could knock down Mascot Towers and rebuild.

We have an offer of $43m on a building that pre-evacuation was valued around $120m. On top of this we have a $16m high interest strata debt accruing interest in excess of $1m a year. 

On sale, we will be left with around $27m to be shared between 132 families and the 9 commercial lots. A two bedroom unit that would have been valued in the region of $890k pre evacuation will see a return of around $220k.  A loss of over 75% of the buildings value that will see families lose their life savings and many forced into bankruptcy.

How could this happen in a first world country?

We regularly ask ourselves this and now we are asking you to be the judge of whether this is fair.

How does our government, there to protect the people, allow such shoddy, faulty workmanship to be carried out in a first world country? And then allow those same residents who have purchased property in good faith, be left to rot and be forced to fend for themselves against these huge property developers. We cannot afford to carry on this fight while the Government just stands back and watches when it is the Government that set up the regulatory environment in the first place.

Our families

We want you to understand the impact that this has had on our lives. Below are some comments from our families:

Being forced out of my home at Mascot towers has been the most debilitating, destructive & emotionally devastating time of my life. The impact on me emotionally, psychologically, and financially has been enormous, and something I will NEVER recover from. This has destroyed me personally and had a huge impact on my family.

We are a family of 5, my husband and me, with 3 young girls, aged 9, 6 and 2.75 years old. Mascot Towers was the first and only home we bought and we had lived there for nearly 8 years. It was a home that we were to live for life.

Our youngest was born 3 days after the evacuation on Friday evening 14 June 2019 where I was notified by a neighbour to leave our unit in one hour at 9pm. We have moved 5 places for the past 3 years. We only wished to provide our children a stable home to grow up in, but now it will never happen.

How you can help

If you think that it’s manifestly unjust that 132 families are ruined while the builders and developers who caused the problems continue to trade and the Government who were responsible for regulating this industry sits back and does nothing, then please sign our petition and share our stories with your families and friends.

Thank you for your support.