As Steve Yates turns the key into the three-bedroom home he he's been building for the last five years, his stomach sinks.
"I absolutely hate coming in here, this is where we are meant to be living, but every time I'm here something new is damaged or stolen," he says.
The Dandenong house in Melbourne's south-east that Steve's poured his life savings into is about 80 per cent finished — but it's not pretty.
There are holes punched in the walls, alcohol bottles and syringes left on the floorboards, smashed glass in the bathrooms and fingerprint dust on the broken doors from where detectives have been.
"My whole body just tenses up when I walk through the door and I imagine what it could have been," he says.
"We should have been settled in here a long time ago, we should have a driveway and a nice garden and all of our furniture inside."
Three years ago Steve's builder went bust. It was a blow, but he says compared to what came next, that was the easy part.
The harder part has been the all-consuming battle he has faced with the state government's Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA), waiting for a domestic building insurance quote to get his place fixed up.
An ongoing battle with insurance authority
Victorian builders are legally required to take out domestic building insurance with the VMIA on behalf of a home owner, to provide some protection if they go bust.
But the authority has been plagued by problems and delays, as it deals with a surge in cases.
"Initially I was contacting the VMIA once every few months, then it was once a week and in the last month it has been once a day, because I'm over it," Steve says.
"The place has got to be fixed; it has been sitting there basically abandoned for three years, in a housing crisis for god's sake."
During that time Steve has been paying a mortgage on the home he can't live in, and squatters have taken over while he is in limbo waiting for decision from the VMIA.
He and his wife are currently sharing a house in a tight squeeze with seven family members that they are paying second a mortgage on.
They are so far around $100,000 out of pocket.
"Some days we wake up and look at each other and go no — let's just shut the doors, shut the curtains and pull the doona over us and sleep — because today is not a good day and we just can't do it," he says.
Steve is battling a multitude of medical conditions and is unable to work. He and his wife have had to sell their business to service the loan repayments and he doesn't know how much longer they can keep going.
"I'm neglecting my health issues — if I concentrate on me I'm not going to get anything done for the family, fighting for the house is the priority," he says.
"I take medication every day to keep myself going."
More than a thousand Victorians left in limbo
According to the VMIA, 87 per cent of incomplete work claims had an offer within six months in the last financial year and the rest had an offer made within 12 months.
But Freedom of Information documents seen by the ABC show the VMIA had more than 1,300 domestic building claims sitting on its desk awaiting settlement, as of the end of last year.
The list of claims faced by the VMIA reflects a broader picture of surging builder insolvencies that have plunged families across Australia into financial nightmares similar to that faced by the Yates family.
Since March 2023, the agency has received a record 4,849 domestic building claims, more than double the average.
A VMIA spokesperson says its priority is to get home owners into their homes as quickly as possible using builders who can be trusted to deliver.
"Where claims are more complex, it's important to be thorough so that claimants — and any future owners — have a safe and secure home that lasts," a spokesperson says.
"That's why we have scaled up our claims processing capacity since the Porter Davis Homes insolvency."
The collapse of builder Porter Davis in March last year has largely caused the surge in cases. The VMIA has made more than 1,600 offers to those customers at the cost of $116 million.
Steve lodged his claim with the VMIA in May 2021.
He says the agency had agreed to pay for 60 per cent of the work.
But it's not all the work required to bring the house up to the standard where a certificate of occupancy can be issued.
"Since then it's just stalled, it's mainly the VMIA's solicitors who have been incredibly difficult," he says.
He's spent nearly $40,000 on lawyers so he can try to get to the stage where the can move into their home.
"We want to move into our house, it's as simple as that, we don't understand why these solicitors are telling VMIA no — we haven't received a quote in three years which is incredibly incompetent," he says.
Ombudsman refuses to investigate
A group of families angry with the VMIA asked for the ombudsman to investigate how quotes for domestic building insurance were being handled, but the ombudsman refused to investigate.
In a letter seen by the ABC, the ombudsman's complaints officer said home owners had other pathways for appeal.
"It has been determined that the appropriate pathway to seek an appeal against decisions made by builder warranty insurers is by making application to the Domestic Building List at VCAT," the officer said.
Shadow Housing Minister Evan Mulholland says the authority recorded a $115.4 million loss in the last financial year and there needs to be more government investment.
"Families are describing this as a double catastrophe, their builders have gone bust and they've had to fight for just compensation from the government and then they've had to fight again with the VMIA to get the necessary compensation they deserve to get on with their lives," he says.
"The government should have known after the Porter Davis collapse that it was going to receive an influx in cases and unfortunately we are seeing the VMIA push back on a lot of these families through their lawyers."
Steve says his fight with the VMIA has ruined him, as his bank account continues to diminish, with no end in sight.
"We are paying for bills left right and centre that we don't have the money to pay for," he says.
"If the VMIA had of treated us the way we deserve, our house wouldn't have been damaged and broken into and we wouldn't have even more costs to bear.
"We have to try and keep hold of the house and try and get it finished so we have something to look forward to and pass onto the kids."
