EIGHT years ago, Jose Curnejo thought he was moving into his dream home in Caroline Springs.
But from the moment his family settled into the house the walls and floors began shifting.
“We first noticed the house shifting in 2004,” he says. “The walls began to crack and our floors began to develop large lumps and cracks.
“When we approached the builder about it he told us it was because there was too much water trapped underneath the floors, making it moist.
“Months later we approached him again and then he said the floors were too dry and that’s why they were moving.”
Commercial litigation lawyer Robert Auricchio said Mr Curnejo’s case was not uncommon. In the past year, Slater & Gordon has received more than 100 similar reports from house owners in Brimbank, Wyndham and Hume.
“Some of these houses are defective to the point of being uninhabitable,” Mr Auricchio said.
He added that some builders were blaming home owners as they knew costly legal proceedings would deter them from taking action.
Last December, the Weekly reported that a particular type of concrete slab foundation, known as a “waffle slab”, became risky when used in volatile soil conditions.
Mr Auricchio said experts believed waffle slabs had to be designed with adequate drainage to cope with the variable nature of soil in the western suburbs.
Mr Curnejo said his house was now riddled with cracks in the plaster.
Downstairs, his windows are almost at breaking point due to pressure the shifting plaster is putting on timber frames.
“It has been so hard for my wife and children,” he said. “The worst thing is there are many others in the same position as us.”
Mr Curnejo said he knew of at least six Caroline Springs households in the same predicament.
“The reality is there were shortcuts taken in the houses in some of the new estates,” he said.
“If they built the house how it was supposed to be built, the way we paid for it, none of this would have happened.”
Mr Curnejo plans to take legal action against the building company.
Mr Auricchio said an independent taskforce had been launched to investigate why so many new homes in the western suburbs had developed structural problems.
A 17-page submission has been sent to the state Treasury and Finance Department as part of a review of consumer protection frameworks.
Mr Auricchio said the taskforce was aiming to determine the number of houses built with waffle slabs, establish dispute resolution for residents, ascertain whether roof trusses posed any health or safety risks and introduce a complaints registry.
A Building Commission spokesman said investigations into properties affected by structural cracks in the west were ongoing.
– mcunningham@fairfaxmedia.com.au
