It's the ultimate case of buyer beware.
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Two families who bought a former Mr Fluffy block have been stung with thousands of dollars of unexpected fees after remnants of the deadly loosefill asbestos were uncovered onsite.
Anthony and Clare Steve purchased the $1.6 million block in Griffith last March with friend Mark Jeffcott, intending to build a duplex for their families to live in.
The block was one of more than 1000 to be cleared and resold under the ACT government's Mr Fluffy mass demolition and buyback scheme.
But the construction of their "dream home" has been delayed after the discovery of bonded and loosefill asbestos in the footprint of the demolished house.
Mr Steve said the bonded asbestos was first discovered when the builder began preparing the site to lay the slab on February 2.
The plumbing for the old house had been left in tact, and bonded asbestos was mixed in with the soil scraped away in preparation for the foundations of the new house.
The Steves contacted the ACT Asbestos Taskforce, who denied responsibility for the issue because of the contract the Steve and Jeffcott families signed when they bought the block.
An official told them a site soil variation report had indicated the site was free from asbestos and they needed to log the issue with Work Safe ACT.
Mr Steve went to a separate assessor, who recommended the soil be removed 100 millimetres at a time, until all the building rubble was gone.
They hired a company to remove the soil on February 14 at their own cost, on the basis the taskforce would allow them to dump the soil for free at the West Belconnen tip.
However, the contractors uncovered bricks coated in a grey substance.
Laboratory tests returned on Monday showed the substance was grey amosite asbestos - otherwise known as Mr Fluffy loosefill asbestos.
Mr Steve was angry they had paid so much for a site that had not been properly remediated.
His children, aged three and seven, had previously dug through the dirt in play, and he feared they may have been exposed to asbestos.
"The last four weeks have been traumatic," Mr Steve said.
Complicating the matter, the asbestos taskforce said they only gave permission for three piles of bonded asbestos contaminated soil to be dumped at the West Belconnen tip.
When the taskforce learnt the contractor was scraping 100 millimetres of soil from the surface, an official said they were under no obligation to help them dispose of the rest of the soil.
This left a truck loaded with contaminated soil waiting at the gates of the tip and an excavator waiting on-site to shovel the next load at "great expense" to them, Mr Steve said.
Between asbestos removalists and late fees from his builder, Mr Steve says he is $18,000 out of pocket and calling for answers.
A spokeswoman from the taskforce reiterated the sale contract gave no guarantees the remediated block was asbestos free.
"Whilst work is undertaken to clear the demolition zone of loose fill asbestos fibres and clearance reports obtained from industry experts, it remains possible that buried contaminants may be present deep below the demolition zone or on other parts of the site.
"This is an issue across many sites in Canberra and is largely due to dated building practices which often involved burying building rubble and other waste on a site."
With another 90 Mr Fluffy blocks about to go under the hammer on Thursday, Mr Steve said it was "buyer beware".
"I would advise them to get their own assessment done of the site, although I'm not sure you can get access because it's under lock and key. Don't take the government on face value on this one," Mr Steve said.
