Tenants fury over combustible cladding evacuation order delay for St Kilda apartment building

Angry tenants are staring down the barrel of homelessness after being given little notice that they needed to evacuate their Melbourne apartments.

Angry tenants staring down the barrel of homelessness after being ordered to leave their bayside apartments say it took four days for anyone to notify them an evacuation order had been placed on the building.

The St Kilda apartment block was branded “uninhabitable” last week due to the building’s highly flammable cladding. Residents were ordered to evacuate their homes by May 21.

The tenants, many of them renters, say the delay in notifying them of the emergency order to move out cost them valuable time in finding a new place to live.

One couple, who are trying to save to buy their own house, are facing the prospect of couch surfing and relying on friends for a place to stay from Friday, as they have been unable to find a new rental.

Another couple, who are expecting their first child in five months, will be forced to move into an Airbnb for eight weeks and put all their furniture in storage while they wait for their new home to become available.

And a young woman, 20, who moved into the building after her dad passed away has also been forced to find a new home for the second time in just two months.

An emergency evacuation order issued by Port Phillip Council for a St Kilda apartment building. Picture: Supplied

An emergency evacuation order was issued due to "undue risk of fire" from combustible cladding. Picture: Supplied

Port Phillip Council has ordered residents out after deeming the building uninhabitable due to the “unreasonable fire risk” posed by its combustible cladding.

“Combustible expanded polystyrene panels have been installed as the external cladding to the building, which constitutes an undue risk of fire spread via the facade of the building,” the council’s municipal building survey said.

Port Phillip Mayor Louise Crawford said the building could not be lived in after May 21 and until the fire safety concerns were addressed.

NCA NewsWire has chosen not to identify the building yet due to residents’ fears for their safety as many are still living at the complex.

Port Phillip Council issued the evacuation order to the owners corporation on Friday May 7 advising they had two weeks to leave the building.

But the tenants living in the apartments – many who were unaware of the cladding issues when they started their lease – told NCA NewsWire they weren’t advised until May 11 or 12, meaning they only had 10 days instead of 14 to find a new place to stay.

One woman, aged 35, said she should have been told as soon as the order was issued so she could have used the weekend to look for a new rental.

“We don’t get told anything,” she said.

The Neo 200 apartment fire in Melbourne's Spencer Street was spread by cladding similar to that used in the Grenfell Tower blaze.

The ‘unliveable’ building is located in the bayside suburb of St Kilda. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“I needed to know that Friday so that I could have looked on the weekend, secured something during the week and then moved (last) weekend.

“I’m a single female that has no family here and I don’t want to have to ask my friends to take a day off to do this.”

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was going to cost her $4000 to move on such short notice. Luckily, she has secured a new place and moves in on Tuesday.

“I’m a lucky one, I have a lot of friends that have offered to help me, I’ve had to borrow money off friends to pay another bond straight away,” she said.

“We still haven’t had a letter in our letterbox to even say do you know this is happening, and there’s no note up anywhere.

“If they do this to another apartment, the council really needs to make sure every tenant is aware of what’s going on and know they’re living in an apartment that is actually high risk.

“Someone, at some point, is going to fall short and end up homeless because there is not enough time.

“Two weeks is too short.”

The 20-year-old woman, who also had to shell out $4000 to secure a new place so quickly, said the full 14 days notice would have “been a great start”.

The aftermath of a cladding fire at the Neo200 building in Melbourne in February 2019. Picture: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

“I’m feeling really disappointed and stressed because I just moved in two months ago and furnished … and my father just died three months ago, so moving the first time was really traumatic and now I have to do it again,” she said.

The tenants have called for more time – at least a month’s notice – and support packages to help them find accommodation as most of them don’t qualify for emergency housing as they have steady employment and technically aren’t homeless until at least Friday.

NCA NewsWire understands the responsibility to inform the tenants of the evacuation order falls on the owners corporation, not the council.

The building’s strata manager Ben Harewood would not address time frames when contacted by NCA NewsWire, but said a fire safety engineering expert had been engaged to remediate the complex to try and make it habitable again.

Basic Expert managing director Jonathan Barnett told NCA NewsWire his team had come up with a plan for emergency works, which it’s understood was being presented to council on Monday afternoon and, if approved, could see residents able to stay in the building.

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