At an apartment block in Melbourne's south-east, Kerry Ould's retirement savings are crumbling around her.
After investing her superannuation into a unit, she discovered it was covered in dangerous combustible cladding and riddled with major defects.
It's unsellable.
"I bought an apartment to set up for my future and right now I haven't got one," Ms Ould said.
She has been struggling to cope with the stress since getting the rectification order in December 2018.
"I've had to go on medication, I've had to go on antidepressants," she said.
"It's probably been the worst three-and-a-half years of my life."
The Frankston South complex is one of more than 800 buildings across Victoria earmarked since 2017 as potentially dangerous in the wake of fires at buildings covered in combustible cladding.
Of the 630 buildings needing the cladding replaced, work has finished on about a quarter.
Research by RMIT showed the protracted process for those living in buildings declared dangerous was weighing heavily on people.
"Some of the people we spoke to were concerned about neighbours being suicidal because of this situation and the uncertainty," Trivess Moore from RMIT's school of Property, Construction and Project Management said.
People reported feeling overwhelmed, with some telling him they had even stepped back from work.
Dr Moore said those suffering the most tended to be parents of young children, those who had recently retired or were preparing to retire, and those for whom the apartment was their key financial asset.
Owners expecting to pay millions for repairs
The state government promised $600 million to cover the cost of removing combustible cladding.
For many apartment owners, cladding replacement work is unable to start until they come up with the money to repair the many defects.
Ms Ould said builders were reluctant to even give quotes for her complex because the defects were so extensive.
The cost will soar into the millions, which will be split between the 33 apartment owners.
"We're probably talking about eight million [dollars of defects] that we have to get fixed, but we can't fix it because we've got no money," Ms Ould said.
She is hopeful legal action against the original property developer, whose building registration has been suspended, will deliver a windfall to cover the repairs.
"We can't get this fixed until we go to court," Ms Ould said.
"I was told last week there's probably at least another two to three years.
According to Cladding Safety Victoria, which is tasked with managing the cladding crisis response, up to 40 per cent of the buildings on its list for work have other building defects.
"Some of them are quite understandable and repairable quite quickly, others are more substantial," Cladding Safety Victoria chief executive Dan O'Brien said.
Mr O'Brien said the rectification scheme was making good progress.
"We've completed 154 buildings and we've got another 51 that are currently under way," he said.
"What we've been able to achieve at this point in time is 60 per cent of the buildings referred to us have a pathway forward."
Relief for residents who have had cladding removed
As the wait continues for many, Cris Popp considers himself a lucky man even as he and his neighbours anticipate a legal challenge similar to the one Ms Ould is waiting on.
The cladding is gone at his Brunswick East apartment and the scaffolding came down this month, leaving a halo of dead plants around the townhouse development.
"When they took the scaffolding off and the light came through again, it was great."
It had been blocking the light for roughly a year while workers replaced the flammable cladding and fixing a litany of other problems.
He said his bill, above and beyond what the government paid for cladding remediation, is going to be at least $10,000.
For the residents of his block, the cladding removal happened just in time – major water damage was discovered and he said a wall was close to collapsing.
"There was no flashing, there was a lot of problem with water leakage," he said.
"It was causing structural damage."
The ABC has contacted the developer for comment.
