Veronica and Clif’s home was once worth $2.2m. They’re now being offered $400,000

Five years ago, retired couple Veronica and Clif Baker were on top of the world, downsizing from their house in Canberra into a spacious penthouse on the 10th floor of a new apartment building, with stunning views of the city.

Today, they’ve hit rock bottom, living huddled in a bedsit in a garage space underneath their daughter’s home in the Blue Mountains, with their health shattered and facing financial ruin.

Mascot Towers unit owners Veronica and Clif Baker were evacuated when cracks appeared in the building. Credit: Wolter Peeters

“It’s been four and a half years of torture and heartache,” said Veronica, 78, who, with her husband, 82, was evacuated from their home in Mascot Towers in June 2019 after cracks appeared in the building. “It’s aged us terribly.

“And now the [NSW] government is treating us dreadfully because they just want to get rid of us as quickly as possible to reduce the political embarrassment. We’ve done everything right all our lives and yet everything is being taken away from us, and we’re being left homeless and with virtually nothing.”

The Bakers are among other owners of the 131 units in the embattled towers who are lashing out at NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler’s proposed solution to the long-running tragedy.

Under the plans hashed out between the NSW Building Commission, the NSW government, the banks who own the mortgages and the strata lender to the block, owners still with mortgages and outstanding strata levies will have their debts cancelled and will receive a percentage of what their homes are worth from a new consortium that wants to buy the lots.

A vote will be taken on February 15 to see if more than 75 per cent of owners agree to the scheme – so that they can choose to sell, while a small minority may opt to stay and take their chances with the new owners and their remediation plans.

“For those who still have big mortgages and haven’t paid their strata levies, that might be tempting,” said Clif, a former naval officer who’s paid off his mortgage, paid every one of his levies – which reached as much as $40,000 a quarter – and all council rates owing. “But we’ve always done the right thing and lost our life savings and super paying those bills and now we’re being punished for it.

“We’ve never been in debt or burdened the government in any way, but now all we’re being offered is around $400,000 for a unit that was valued, a month before evacuation, at $2,258,000. That won’t be enough to buy us another home or pay rent. So we’re going to be homeless, with nowhere to go. I’m virtually a broken man now, and have Parkinson’s disease from all the stress, while my wife has mental issues and is on anti-depressants permanently.”

An estimated 42 owners in Mascot Towers are in a similar position and face the prospect of receiving only a fraction of what their apartments are worth. Those over the age of 65 may be means-tested to see if they could be paid any extra.

When Chandler was contacted about their concerns, he said he had no comment to make. He’s said previously that the proposed solution to the Mascot Towers mess wouldn’t please everyone, but that it was a chance for all to leave the nightmare behind.

A spokesperson for the Building Commission of NSW said, “Since being tasked with the job in March last year, the Building Commissioner has been working tirelessly to find a resolution that lets owners move on with their lives. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling late last year, the sale of lots strategy gives all owners their first chance in five years to make an individual choice to stay or sell.”

Shelter NSW CEO John Engeler, who has been helping the owners, earlier described the plan as not ideal, but the best “of the Plan Bs, Cs and Xs”.

Other residents who may owe more on their mortgages or on their levy bills have said they’re satisfied, although far from delighted, with the proposed deal, seeing it as a chance to walk away from the Mascot Towers debacle debt-free and restart their lives.

A sale could finally be in sight for the troubled Mascot Towers.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Some of the owners, however, disagree. Engineer Derek Williams, 61, who has only $280,000 left of his mortgage for a unit valued recently at $1.2 million, has also slammed the plan as “grossly unfair”.

“I’m expected to walk away quietly with about a third of the price, $400,000, and see $800,000-$900,000 of my hard-earned money flushed down the drain,” said Derek from his hospital bed where he’s now being treated for leukaemia which he is convinced was caused by the stress of the situation.

“How can I possibly rebuild my life financially from this? It’s not good enough. We’re ready to take a hit, but how about paying us half of what the units are worth instead? This has been like a noose around our necks, and you can’t stop thinking about it. Two years ago, I said it’s like a cancer that never goes away, and will never be resolved, and now here it is: I have blood cancer.”

His wife, business manager Rachel Williams, 52, says the government needs to come up with a more viable solution. “Premier Chris Minns and Housing Minister Anoulack Chanthivong promised they’d step up before the election, but they haven’t shown their faces since,” she said. “We need them to make a more sensible offer.”

Another owner, travel industry worker Sue Criddle, 67, is in the same position, having paid off her mortgage and strata fees.

“The ones who really stretched themselves to pay everything and so don’t have debts are really missing out,” she said. “How is that fair? I can’t believe this is happening. It’s put a strain on everything for us. And we have so little information, how can we possibly vote on this?”