Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler announces demolition of Bellamack homes
In November last year, the NT government announced it would demolish ‘risky’ homes in Bellamack but that was cold comfort for one homeowner. Read our special investigation here.
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In November last year, NT government Director of Building Control Mark Meldrum and Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler posed for cameras in front of one of the Bellamack houses as they announced they would be knocked down, nine years after they were built.
It came 10 months after the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics received its first independent report into the houses - built in Bellamack in 2012 and 2013 as part of a government affordable housing scheme - saying the houses were found to present a serious safety risk in any high wind event, including a thunderstorm.
A second report prepared for the department later in 2021 made similar recommendations.
Afrin Syeda and her family were arguably among the “lucky” ones.
They were among nine homeowners paid compensation for the total value of their home, which has now been demolished.
Some chose to have their homes rebuilt by another builder – Killarney Homes.
Others, like Afrin and her family, cut their losses and moved interstate.
When we knocked on the door of one of the rebuilt homes last week, the occupant told us they were not allowed to talk.
Confidentiality agreements were signed as part of the compensation negotiations.
The nine demolished properties – as well as the still-standing house owned by the developer - were covered under the Home Building Certification Fund, which applied to homes built before December 31, 2012.
But the regulations were changed at the end of 2012.
Five of the remaining homes fall under the Residential Building Cover Scheme.
This scheme has proven to offer far less protection for homeowners.
Rather than being paid out in full or having their homes rebuilt, they have had to apply for compensation through Consumer Affairs.
Another three homes were covered by the Residential Building Cover Scheme but the cover had lapsed by the time the infrastructure department received its report in 2021.
The government has said it has provided these homeowners advice.
However, that November announcement was cold comfort for Jessie Williams-Hook whose home was one of eight that wouldn’t be knocked down..
“They came out publicly and said all this stuff and said ‘we will knock them all down’ but they only knocked half of them down,” Mr Williams-Hook said
The adverse publicly also meant it would now be impossible to sell, not that he would consider putting someone else through his decade-long nightmare.
On the same day Mr Meldrum and Ms Lawler made this announcement, Mr Williams-Hook received a letter via email from Mr Meldrum.
It was a reminder that if there was a cyclone warning “you are advised to seek alternative suitable accommodation”.
He emailed back less than an hour later. “Why is there no mention of even a thunderstorm when clearly the engineer’s report states that they couldn’t guarantee the structural integrity even during a high wind event?” he wrote.
“Why is it you can send these letters knowing what you know and yet we are still being allowed to continue living in these timebombs?”
He never received a response.
Meanwhile, that timebomb continues to tick.
‘The whole house shakes’: Homeowner fears for his safety
Jessie Williams-Hook is one of the unlucky eight living in Bellamack homes that reports have found to pose a serious risk to occupants.
He’s still living in the house the infrastructure department has deemed unsafe.
When he turns on his washing machine he says “it’s like there’s an earthquake happening”.
He knows the next thunderstorm might mean disaster.
“There’s less notice for a thunderstorm,” he said when we spoke to him last week.
“We have had some pretty decent ones lately and I’m like ‘is this going to be it?’.
“The whole house shakes. It’s quite scary. But I can’t just pack up every time there’s a thunderstorm, can I?”
The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics received its first independent report into the houses - built in Bellamack in 2012 and 2013 as part of a government affordable housing scheme - in January last year.
A second report prepared for the department later in 2021 made similar recommendations.
Mr Williams-Hook’s bad luck was two-fold.
He’d signed up to buy one of the houses built before 2013.
But when he drove past it one day he noticed there were people who seemed to be conducting rectification work beneath the building.
When he questioned what was happening, he was offered an almost identical property just around the corner.
It cost him an extra $10,000 but he was assured there would be no issues.
If he had bought the first house he would have been covered under the Home Building Certification Fund.
Instead, he’s been locked in a two-year battle and is yet to see a cent in compensation.
Mr Williams-Hook had sought recompense through the Fidelity Fund only to find his certificate had expired in 2019.
He and four other owners have now sought compensation through Consumer Affairs.
The body has ruled in his favour.
But even in a best-case scenario, he would only receive $200,000, less than a third of what it would cost him to knock down his home and rebuild.
And that money would have to be sought from Mr Milatos, who has made it clear he believes he bears no responsibility for the problems.
“What has that got to do with me,” Mr Milatos said.
“If I built it to the provided drawings what else can I do? Five people are trying to get money out of me because my name appears on the building permit. But if I was to build a house for you and I didn’t get a certifier to come and check it over, I couldn’t get you a certificate of occupancy.”
Given those certificates were issued, Mr Milatos says the responsibility should lie with Building Control Services and the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.
Mr Williams-Hook says his only remaining option might be to pursue the government.
“They are the only one left but that’s going to cost money too, going to court,” he said.
“They were the ones saying ‘we’ve got this low-to-middle income buyer scheme, we are trying to get you into the housing market.
“Now it’s like, ‘you can sort it out for yourselves’.”
Houses pose ‘airborne debris’ risk in thunderstorms: Report
On April 13, 2021, seven years after it started receiving complaints, the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics issued a public statement about the houses after receiving an engineering assessment report into some of the properties.
The statement said they had found “no immediate safety risk”.
It also quoted Mark Meldrum, the Director of Building Control who said there may be a safety risk to occupants during a cyclone event.
“There is no immediate threat to safety and the Northern Territory Government continues to work with these homeowners to make sure they are aware of the potential structural issues associated with their properties,” he said.
But a copy of the report by Acer Forrester, shows the houses were found to present a serious safety risk in any high wind event, including a thunderstorm.
“In the event of a high wind event, such as a during a cyclone, thunderstorm downburst or tornado, the nature of the potential failure of the house structure is that the TBS (Titan Building System) panels become airborne debris, endangering the surrounding community and houses,” the report says.
“It is the view of (the structural engineer) that the non-compliance of the construction and severe corrosion of structural members presents a risk of serious injury to those that may be affected in such an event.”
The report also makes clear the danger is not just to the occupants, but also to “the surrounding neighbouring properties and residents”.
When we spoke with neighbours this week, they said they had never been informed by the department about the risk.
“Never seen anyone, never heard from anyone,” said one neighbour who has rented a home next to one of the houses for more than five years and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“Surely if nobody is monitoring it and something keeps flying around outside and it cuts your head off – which, anything can happen … It’s a bit too late to worry about it then, whether you go to heaven or hell.
“You can’t send messages down (to there). Not from my point of view anyway.”
Another neighbour said they were always careful to avoid walking near the house.
“We have been living with this risk for how many years?” they asked.
The house assessed in the initial report is still owned by the developer and is unoccupied.
The report found the house was “non-compliant” with the building code and “structurally inadequate”.
“The assessment is that there is a risk of serious injury to persons as a direct result of the non-compliance and conditions of the structure,” the report says.
The report said it was “possible in theory” to upgrade the house to meet the National Construction Code, it was not considered “reasonable or practical.
“It is the professional opinion of the authors that the house structurally presents a safety risk of serious injury to the occupants and the community, and that consideration is given to the demolition of the house without undue delay.”
Despite the warning, the house, and another eight like it, remain standing almost two years after that report was written.
The Infrastructure Department did not directly address questions about why it had only warned of the danger during cyclones, not thunderstorms, why neighbours had not been informed of the risk, and why houses were still standing despite the risk.
“The Acer Forester report concluded that it is not possible to predict the potential complex failure of the homes with any certainty in any high wind event,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“The report concluded that the only feasible risk management strategy is to mitigate the risk by moving the occupants out of the homes with the threat of a cyclone. The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics has acted on that advice and all owners were informed of the report’s findings.”
Houses still standing years after recommended for demolition
Houses found to pose a serious risk to occupants and neighbours are still standing almost two years after the government received the first of two reports report saying they should be demolished “without undue delay”.
The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics received its first independent report into the houses - built in Bellamack in 2012 and 2013 as part of a government affordable housing scheme - in January last year.
It warned the elevated homes in the Palmerston suburb presented a serious risk “in the event of a high wind event, such as a during a cyclone, thunderstorm downburst or tornado”.
“The nature of the potential failure of the house structure is that the TBS (Titan Building System) panels become airborne debris, endangering the surrounding community and houses,” the report by engineering consultant Acer Forester says.
“It is the view of (the structural engineer) that the non-compliance of the construction and severe corrosion of structural members presents a risk of serious injury to those that may be affected in such an event.”
On April 13 last year the department issued a statement saying the report had found there was no immediate safety risk.
In the statement, Director of Building Control Mark Meldrum said although there was no immediate need to find alternative accommodation, there may be a safety risk to occupants during a cyclone event.
“There is no immediate threat to safety, and the Northern Territory government continues to work with these homeowners to make sure they are aware of the potential structural issues associated with their properties,” Mr Meldrum said.
The statement made no mention of the danger posed by a thunderstorm or the risk to neighbours.
Neighbours at two of the houses this week said they had never been told of the risk that existed next door.
The house assessed in the report is still owned by developer Bellamack Pty Ltd and was used as a sample for 17 other similar homes.
A second report prepared for the department later in 2021 made similar recommendations.
The homes were built in 2012 and 2013 as per an NT government affordable housing scheme.
The January 2021 report said while it was “possible in theory” to upgrade the house to meet the National Construction Code, it was not considered “reasonable or practical.
“It is the professional opinion of the authors that the house structurally presents a safety risk of serious injury to the occupants and the community, and that consideration is given to the demolition of the house without undue delay.”
But almost two years later the house – while unoccupied - remains standing.
The government began demolishing some of the 18 houses in November 2021.
Nine houses whose owners were compensated under the Home Building Certification Fund have been demolished with some since rebuilt.
But the HBCF only applied to homes built before the end of 2012.
Another eight homes built in 2013 remain standing as some of their owners seek redress through the Residential Building Cover Scheme.
The house owned by the developer is covered under the HBCF.
The company is waiting for its claim to be finalised before the house is knocked down.
The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics did not directly answer questions about the houses were still standing, why it had not warned of the dangers posed in a thunderstorm and why neighbours had not been told of the risk.
“The Acer Forester report concluded that it is not possible to predict the potential complex failure of the homes with any certainty in any high wind event,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
“The report concluded that the only feasible risk management strategy is to mitigate the risk by moving the occupants out of the homes with the threat of a cyclone.
“The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics has acted on that advice and all owners were informed of the report’s findings.”
‘I was too scared to move’: Mother’s fear as house shook
Afrin Syeda is sitting in the living room of her family home.
It’s May 2017, just three years after her family bought into what they thought was the great Australian dream.
A three-bedroom, elevated home in Bellamack, on the outskirts of tropical Darwin.
But that dream had turned into a nightmare.
The tiles were cracking, the roof was leaking.
The steel beams holding up the house had already started to corrode.
It was worst when it was windy.
“The whole house is shaking sometimes when the wind is blowing too hard,” she said.
Ten months later Afrin and her family would be forced to flee as Cyclone Marcus approached Darwin.
“Our house was moving a lot, shaking a lot and I just said to my kids get in one room because I was too scared to move anywhere else,” she told the NT News in March 2018, three days after Marcus hit.
They soon decided they had no choice but to make a run for it, dashing to safety at a nearby relative’s home.
“We have kids who are too scared to live in this house now,” she said.
The house was one of 18 built in the suburb of Bellamack, Palmerston, as part of a Northern Territory Government affordable housing scheme.
Known as “Titan Homes”, they were marketed as affordable and tough when they first went on the market in 2012.
They proved anything but. By 2014 the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics began receiving complaints about the homes.
By 2016, most of the owners realised something was seriously wrong.
Their fears were confirmed later that year when a letter arrived from the developer, Perth-based Brierty Ltd, telling them their houses might not be safe in a cyclone and offering to reimburse costs if they sought shelter in a hotel.
In August 2017, Brierty’s subsidiary Bellamack Pty Ltd, wrote to homeowners saying rectification work would begin immediately.
No such work occurred and by the time Marcus arrived in March 2018, phone numbers for Bellamack Pty Ltd and a project manager tasked with fixing the homes had been disconnected.
A month earlier Brierty had gone into liquidation.
Bellamack Pty Ltd now trades as Territory Life.
It’s general manager Clement Williams said the company had conducted its own reports and had tried to organise meetings with the builder, Darwin-based George Milatos from Titan Homes, and the engineer, JWS Consultants to get the problems rectified.
But the builder and engineer have both since been de-registered.
Mr Milatos has consistently denied he is to blame for the problems, saying he built the homes to the specifications provided to him by the developer.
He has accused the government of making him a scapegoat.
“There’s two questions that need to be asked,” he said.
“How did the houses get a certificate of occupancy if the builder didn’t do his job properly? And why isn’t anybody checking as to whether the houses were built as to the approved drawings?”
Afrin’s house was demolished last year.
*Matt Cunningham is the Northern Territory correspondent for Sky News
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