Courtenay Trinder, her partner Matt Smith and their son, 3½, would be homeless if her father hadn't let them stay with him in Queanbeyan.

Ms Trinder, who works for the Department of Human Services, said the family's experiences in trying to build a disability-friendly home (a family member has mobility issues) in Ivy Kent Street, Forde, had had a devastating effect on their lives.

According to Ms Trinder, the couple have paid two separate builders a total of $285,000 but still don't have a roof of their own over their heads.

''For us there's nothing left but prayer and hope for a miracle,'' she said. ''All I've ever wanted is a home for my little boy. Now it seems that will never happen.''

The family's ordeal began in March last year when they signed a contract with Brendan Eames of Hayldon Homes to construct a $300,000 four-bedroom home on their land. They had expected the house to be finished before the end of that year.

By August, little work had been done, even though they had paid out $15,000 to Hayldon, which was now in administration.

An investigation by the ACT government's Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate resulted in Mr Eames's builders licence being cancelled in January by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for five years. Hayldon was a subsidiary of Core Developments (Australia), another Eames company.

Environment and Sustainable Development director of construction services Craig Simmons said: ''Mr Eames consented in the ACAT to having his licence cancelled for five years, the maximum possible period, as a result of our investigation. This is the longest cancellation of a licence yet handed down under the Construction Occupations Licensing Act.''

Ms Trinder and Mr Smith signed a fresh contract to complete their house with Alex Anderson's Metro Construction and Development (MCD) in December. Metro Constructions and Development has also run into financial difficulties.

It was placed into voluntary administration at the end of June with RSM Bird Cameron.

That is the same administrator who handled Hayldon Homes and which facilitated the transfer of the building project from Mr Eames's company to Mr Anderson's.

Mr Anderson told The Canberra Times he had picked up the $300,000 Smith-Trinder contract as ''a favour'' to Mr Eames, who he said was ''a mate''. Mr Simmons said Metro Construction and Development and ''its nominee, Alex Anderson'', was under investigation by Environment and Sustainable Development. ''A number of properties involving Mr Anderson are still being investigated,'' he said.

''We are also investigating other builders as a result of complaints lodged by Mr Anderson.''

Mr Anderson told The Canberra Times in a statement that he would lose his own home as a result of the failure of MCD and that ''corrupt and collusive'' individuals had set out to destroy his company

''My position is that I no longer want to be in the building industry and whilst these people remain, these problems will keep on occurring,'' he said.

Ms Trinder and Mr Smith said their plight has been complicated further by Mr Anderson's request they sign a new ''completion contract'' worth $30,000 with another of his companies, Metro Constructions (Residential).

They said that was the day before Metro Constructions and Development went into administration at the end of June.

Ms Trinder said the couple had already paid $270,000 of the $300,000 contract amount to MCD.

But she said that they could not get contractors to sign off on the work because they had not been paid by Mr Anderson. No further work has been carried out at the site, despite Metro Constructions (Residential) - which is not in administration and which is entirely owned by Mr Anderson - only having until the end of September to complete the work.

Mr Anderson said Ms Trinder and Mr Smith were ''lovely people'' and he wanted to help them but he could not guarantee Metro Constructions (Residential) would be able to complete their home before the due date.

Mr Simmons said the role of Environment and Sustainable Development was to ''weed out the bad behaviour [in the building industry] that we know is there''.

''To do this we need hard evidence of inappropriate practices, preferably while it is still current.''

He said there were safeguards in place but for them to work homeowners needed to speak to ESD. ''Speak to us if you've got a problem with your builder; if you think you have problems with a building contract speak to a lawyer''.