Family speaks out over heritage protection fight at former home of Esme Johnson

The owners of a Tudor-style Brighton home they want to demolish say they have spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” fighting a campaign to have the house heritage listed after scrimping and saving to provide a home for their family.

Frank Pothitos with his children and in-laws, Andrew and Linda, outside his property at 38 Grosvenor St, Brighton.

The owners of a Tudor-style home slated for demolition say planning laws have cut out of the heritage consultation process.

Frank and Irene Pothitos bought the home at 38 Grosvenor St, Brighton, in 2011 with plans to raze it and build two townhouses on the site for their family.

At the time, there was no heritage protection for the 1929 house, with a 2004 study finding it was not worthy of state significance.

But the development proposal, lodged with Bayside Council in January, sparked a campaign to have heritage protection slapped on the building — formerly owned by prominent journalist, playwright and actor Esme Johnson.

A petition to save the property from the wrecking ball garnered 935 signatures.

The window sills have rotted through.

Authorities have since scrambled to reassess the home, with Planning Minister Richard Wynne slapping an interim heritage order on the home yesterday despite a further Heritage Council report this year confirming the house, although uncommon, did not meet several criteria for state protection.

Mr Pothitos said the family had not been contacted by any of the consultants and studies had been done without access to the property.

“How can you prepare a proper report on the state of the property without looking through the house?,” he said.

“I just don’t understand how people can form a view that it should be protected without consulting us, the owners.”

The community has rallied to try and save 38 Grosvenor St from the wrecking ball.

Mr Pothitos said the wood window sills were rotting, the roof was full of leaks and was home to a family of possums.

“Two separate (pest control companies) refused to give us a quote on the basis the roof was too unsafe to enter,” he said.

“The house is a hotchpotch of styles with rooms added.”

Mr Pothitos said he and his wife had scrimped and saved ahead of the planned build, which includes a home for the family of four and one for his in-laws.

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But the delays have meant a huge budget blowout, with legal and planning expert fees churning through “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

“Our son was due to start high school at a private school next year but we’ve had to move him to another school because we can’t afford it,” Mr Pothitos said.

“The expert planner alone was the cost of one year of his high school fees.”

The previous owner, architect John Grant, opted not to have the home included in the Grosvenor St heritage overlay under Bayside Council’s voluntary inclusion process, saying the building was “poorly planned and built … by a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs”.

But Mr Pothitos warned other residents that clearly didn’t guarantee against future heritage restrictions.

“You cannot rely on the fact that your house has been assessed and deemed not worthy of protection to prevent you from being in this mess,” he said.

“It’s in no way a watertight process — at any time anyone can nominate your home for state heritage.