"About 30 affected senior residents have approached us in a highly anxious state due to the prospect of having to leave their homes at such short notice and rebuild their lives and their communities elsewhere," Mr Markham said.

The average age of these senior residents is 77, and the average time they have spent in their home is 43 years. One Mr Fluffy resident is 98 years old.

"The prospect of moving is an incredibly daunting task for them and the buyback program has made no real provision for their situation," Mr Markham said.

Mr Wallace said the firm had been contacted by the children of an elderly couple who were under so much stress that the father's dementia was rapidly worsening and the mother was suffering debilitating depression.

"Nearly every elderly resident I have spoken to as told me the stress caused by the buyback program has been worse for their health than their Mr Fluffy home ever has been. I think that indicates something is wrong when the program designed to fix a health hazard is itself a health hazard," said Mr Wallace.

But negotiations with the Asbestos Taskforce had resulted in little progress.

While elderly residents are able to remain in their homes until 30 June 2020, an underlying issues is that the settlement figures paid by the government would be frozen at a point in October 2014.

"In essence, the program as it currently stands, will cause the elderly and the vulnerable who want to stay longer in their homes to suffer a continuing loss due to the reduction in value of their home over the five-year period," Mr Markham said.

The loss for most senior residents would typically range between $50,000-$150,000 depending on the value of their homes, how long they stay in them after October 2014 and how they would have invested their money if they had otherwise received early payments of the surrender sum from the ACT Government.

Mr Markham noted that most of the senior Mr Fluffy owners lived in established suburbs and completely owned their homes which was often their sole sizeable asset.

The firm was seeking an arrangement whereby elderly residents could live in their homes until they die or voluntary transfer to a nursing home.

The firm also wanted to arrange an indexation to cover the increase in land value over that time – with the understanding the government would eventually be the recipient of that increase in land value.

But the head of the ACT Asbestos Response Taskforce Andrew Kefford indicated there was no room for movement on either issue.

He said the taskforce was meeting with the Council on the Ageing and various community groups to establish how best to assist older residents make decisions about their futures.

"We understand the high levels of anxiety some of our more elderly residents are under," he said.

But the taskforce was also managing the occupational health and safety risk of workers who would be entering those homes to provide personal care and assistance over the coming years.

"We have to manage the future exposure risk if senior residents require more intensive care in place."