Fluffy owners demand their land

The Change.org petition was set up on December 9 by disgruntled Mr Fluffy owners who are desperate to remain in their neighbourhoods and want government funding to knock down and rebuild, rather than being bought out by the government at October 2014 market value.

They believe the current system, in which their blocks would be cleaned and rezoned, will make it impossible for them to afford to buy back their land.

The petition, started by Mr Fluffy homeowner Ray Collins, has 983 signatures and calls on the government to accept all of the recommendations of the inquiry into the proposed Appropriation (Loose-Fill Asbestos Insulation Eradication) Bill 2014-15, which handed down its findings last month.

In particular, recommendation 19 asks that the ACT government amend the current scheme "so that the offer includes a viable knock‐down and rebuild option".

The government rejected the recommendation because it was too expensive.

"The net cost to the ACT community would be considerably higher than under the scheme as proposed," it said in its response.

"Even if only 50 per cent of households took up this option the additional cost to ACT ratepayers would be around $50 million, largely as a result of the government foregoing any value uplift resulting from planning changes."

There would also be an estimated $2 million a year in interest costs "into perpetuity", the government said.

But comments on the petition have argued that the current scheme is unfair to homeowners, who, through no fault of their own, have been burdened with the emotional and financial costs of owning a Mr Fluffy home.

One of the signatories, Jim Vizovitis, said: "This affect(s) our original family home, which we have owned since 1969. With the way this scheme is set up, my parents at 82 and 74 years old would need to get into debt to rebuild what they have had."

Mr Vizovitis said the ACT government should never have accepted the Commonwealth loan, because it was a Commonwealth mistake that led to Mr Fluffy being so widely used in Canberra.

Another signatory asked: "Why should my family be forced out of our community due to government mismanagement. The house has to go but give us a reasonable chance to rebuild on our land."

The petition has received support from not just Mr Fluffy homeowners but friends and supporters in the ACT and interstate.

David Read, whose mother owns a Mr Fluffy home and who helps administer the Mr Fluffy Homes – Full Disclosure Facebook group, said many in the community believed the government response to Mr Fluffy amounted to a land grab.

"These people are not going down without a fight. House prices are going up, they've got nowhere to go and they are being priced out of their communities. Quite frankly, they feel like they are being stitched up."

Elderly residents in particular faced enormous financial and emotional disadvantages if they were forced to leave their homes, he said.

While the government has said it would allow residents to remain for up to five years, Mr Read said: "It's like putting a stop-watch on their lives, assuming they will die or need to go into a nursing home before they are forced out. It's these people my heart goes out to."

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said there would be no change of government policy regarding the buy-back.

"The government's approach to removing the toxic legacy of Mr Fluffy in the ACT is a measured and compassionate response. It provides certainty and financial stability to Mr Fluffy owners," Mr Barr said.

"The scheme is bound by economic realities. We estimate it will cost about a quarter of the ACT's annual budget, so it was important that we designed the scheme in the best interests of all taxpayers in the ACT. It is crucial that we remove this problem once and for all and we are not considering any changes to the current scheme."