Owners offered loans to pay for cladding

 

By Meg Hill

The state government announced its plan to deal with the removal of combustible cladding on July 26 by providing owners with loans to cover the costs.

There has been long-term speculation over who would foot the bill for the non-compliant cladding on buildings around Melbourne after the 2014 fire at the Lacrosse Building in Docklands.

The Cladding Rectification Agreements will be between owners (or owners’ corporations), lenders and municipal councils. Loans will be paid back out of rates, over a minimum period of 10 years.

Minister for Planning Richard Wynne said: “The scheme is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and offers owners the cheapest and most efficient way of removing dangerous cladding from their buildings.”

But there has been hostility to the onus falling on owners instead of on construction companies and the building surveyors who approved the cladding in the first place.

Rus Littleson, a director of the We Live Here owners and residents group, said the plan was a compromise.

“We sense a hint of contrition from the state government, whose imprimatur was firmly stamped on the use of flammable cladding for many years,” he said.

“Victoria’s deregulated building approval system allowed dangerous building materials to become widespread here.”

“Financial assistance is not quite the mea culpa that owners deserve from the government. But, it does go some way to acknowledge the government’s responsibility and also ameliorate the impact on unfortunate owners caught up in this dangerous, costly, bureaucratic mess.”

The Victorian Building Authority (VBA) has almost completed an audit of 1369 planning and building permits, and has issued more than 100 building orders to residents.

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