Bureaucratic Bungle: Svetlana's Struggle

This is a recreation of an article that originally appeared in The AJN on March 16, 2018. The original document is below. Original article by Rebecca Davis. Article recreation may be edited for spelling and clarity.

By: Rebecca Davis

For more than nine years, Svetlana and Boris Zaitsen have been on the quest for justice.

The Caulfield North residents have lost their life savings in the battle to build their dream home - the duplex that was intended to be both their retirement and investment property.

"It has drained us financially, and taxed our health to the limit... We have lost everything except our lives," and exasperated Svetlana told The AJN.

Their Cromwell Street property lies in tatters, uninhabitable, and earmarked for demolition following a series of building defects that have rendered the dwelling a death trap.

The designs were allegedly flawed, the frame de-functional, and the concrete not reinforced.

The property floods with light rain, windows have collapsed, as have parts of the roof, and the lift well planned for Svetlana, who is confined to life in a wheelchair is oversized, and sits directly beneath roof beams,

The project was initially meant to have cost $1.6 million, but with rectification after rectification required, the Zaitsens say they have now spent more than $8 million. Forced to sell their other home to pay for the works, the couple have taken claims against building operators to the Victorian Building Authority (VBA), various government departments, agencies, tribunals, and consumer service bodies.

But, they have repeatedly hit the brick wall of bureaucracy and red tape.

The VBA ruled that the works were dodge but that the Zaitsens had to repair the building despite three independent reports stating that the home has to be demolished - but the Zaitsens no longer have funds for further repairs, or for demolition.

Shadow Minister for Planning, Local Government and Equality David Davis MP brought forth the Zaitsens' story to the Legislative Council, asking the Minister for Planning Richard Wynne meet with the couple.

The request has been echoed by other members of Parliament across the divide, and the desperate Svetlana even lobbied Premier Andrews to intervene on the steps of State Parliament at the end of last year. But to no avail.

"We are very tired, ill, and worn out. I get up in the morning and I cry... I got to bed at night and I again cry myself to sleep... There is no hope, Svetlana said. "We are destroyed with no future."

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