MORE than 100 homebuyers across Melbourne’s North and West have sought legal help after their homes began to crack beneath them.
Last week, Slater and Gordon commercial litigation lawyer Robert Auricchio said his firm had received enquiries from more than 100 people facing the issue.
He said most of the residents who contacted the law firm lived in the Hume, Brimbank and Wyndham municipalities.
Mr Auricchio said many homes were developing fissures thanks to being built on waffle raft slabs in areas with reactive soil.
“Unless the appropriate foundations and footings are in place, houses built on highly-reactive soil will develop serious problems when the soil expands or contracts as the soil’s moisture content change,” he said.
Waffle slabs are constructed by pouring concrete over polystyrene void formers without using footing excavation or digging trenches.
“Some of these houses are defective to the point of being uninhabitable,” Mr Auricchio said.
Mr Auricchio said builders were not being held to account the inappropriate use of waffle slabs.
Slater and Gordon are calling for an independent taskforce to investigate why many new homes built on waffle slabs in the northern and western suburbs have developed major structural cracks.
The firm has presented a 17-page submission to the Department of Treasury and Finance as part of a review into Victoria’s consumer protection frameworks.
“We’re seeing builders abrogating their responsibilities to repair the homes and instead blaming the owners because they know that costly legal proceedings will deter homeowners from pursuing them and holding them to account for their shoddy work,’’ Mr Auricchio said.
“Builders that do not respond and attend to works within a reasonable timeframe should have their building registration automatically suspended until such works are performed, particularly where foundation movement is concerned.”
