Like many other couples in the ACT, Michael Romei and Ben O'Bryan are facing the prospect of watching their beautiful Yarralumla home be demolished due to Mr Fluffy asbestos.
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The big difference between them and the more than 1000 affected households, however, is that Mr Fluffy insulation was never pumped into their home.
In what will be a test case for the ACT, the couple are seeking to have their home, which is one side of a two-storey duplex, saved from demolition.
The other side of the duplex, which is separated by a double brick wall which goes right to the roof, had Mr Fluffy installed in the 1970s and removed by a private contractor who charged the ACT government under the removal program in 1991.
Those owners are currently exploring options to privately demolish and rebuild half of the duplex.
Both sides of the duplex have received independent engineering advice suggesting one side of the building can be demolished without affecting the other side.
In fact, half a duplex was demolished and rebuilt on the other side of the street in 2013.
Yet all advice from the ACT Asbestos Response Taskforce to Mr Romei and Mr O'Bryan says their home will also need to be demolished. This is despite a full asbestos assessment finding no evidence of amosite anywhere in the house.
In a complicating factor, the private contractor who had cleaned the asbestos from the other side of the duplex in the '90s also knocked on the adjoining door to offer to "clean" the unaffected roof for an additional $10,000. He did this by removing some of the top part of the brick wall and cleaning in to a distance of two metres from the wall.
The latest assessment said there was "the potential" for asbestos fibres to have migrated between the two properties. But, based on sample results, there was "no indication" that loose fibres were contained within the ceiling space.
Mr Romei and Mr O'Bryan believe their home was caught up in government's Mr Fluffy books because of a "cash grab" from the removalist who was trying to maximise his earning potential from one building after claiming the maximum $40,000 amount for the other half of the duplex.
A spokeswoman for the taskforce said the determination to demolish the home was made from "the original removal file of this property which shows that amosite asbestos was detected in the roof space of this property during the original clean-up program".
Mr Romei said the situation was farcical.
"The taskforce is relying solely on a quote by a private contractor who wanted to make a quick buck back in the early '90s. There was no scientific analysis or concrete proof that there was any asbestos in our roof. Also, if there was a genuine concern that asbestos had penetrated our roof space, why was it only cleaned two metres in? Why did the tenant continue to live in the house while the clean-up occurred?
"If the taskforce wants to knock down our house because of the actions of a cowboy removalist operating 20 years ago, then they need to prove – at their own cost – that there are fibres in our home. If the taskforce can prove this then we'll accept their determination, but right now this simply isn't good enough."
The couple had scrimped and saved to afford a home in Yarralumla and loved the quiet street they were in.
Mr O'Bryan said that on principle, it was unacceptable to knock down the half of the 1951 home if it could not be proven to be affected by asbestos.
The thought that the parquetry floors and original sash windows would go to landfill was too distressing to contemplate.
"We bought a house that we could love and live in … We didn't buy something with the intent to knock it down. I can't let this happen to a building and have it play on my conscience ... I feel like I'm a bit of a guardian to Canberra's identity in that respect."
Mr Romei said he had been disappointed by the lack of contact by the taskforce when the couple had tried to have their unique circumstances taken into account.
They are currently in limbo, knowing that whatever happens, their lives stand to be hugely disrupted – either when one or both sides of the building come down.
"It is an incredibly stressful situation for us to be in, the irony being that our house didn't even have any Mr Fluffy pumped into it," said Mr Romei.
