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Brian Tucker is forking out thousands of dollars on quarterly strata fees and paying down his mortgage on an apartment that's been uninhabitable for more than four years.
The Sydney surveyor owns one of the 130 apartments in the defect-plagued Mascot Towers that have been unoccupied since 2019 when cracks were found in the basement.
And while the Mascot Towers saga helped bring systemic issues in the NSW construction industry into clear focus, Mr Tucker's life remains on hold.
"It's just a nagging thing in my brain all the time, and it's four years and we're still bashing our heads against the wall," Mr Tucker said.
"When I tell people I had the penthouse there, they just shake their head and go, 'you poor bastard' because it's not changed, and the building's unoccupied except for a few shops downstairs.
"Plus now, I'm paying rent so it's just lucky I've got a job, I'm lucky I'm not working for myself because I'd be buggered. And I'm falling behind."
As the NSW government pushes for more housing density in Sydney, questions about the quality of new apartment buildings have re-emerged after major developer Toplace went into administration.
Game of 'Russian roulette'
So far this year NSW Fair Trading has issued more than 30 work rectification orders across building sites, including The Laneways Rosebery, which remains empty and has serious structural defects, and Toplace's Vicinity complex in Canterbury over "potential serious defects".
Administrators appointed to Toplace estimate about 600 creditors have been impacted by its financial woes and residents at the Vicinity complex now fear they'll have to foot the multi-million-dollar repair bill.
Leith Dawes, an engineer who owns an apartment at Vicinity, said despite reforms in the building industry since the Mascot Towers saga, it remained a game of "Russian roulette" when buying off-the-plan.
"When it comes to really complex severe systemic defects, it's just well beyond the average person to be able to size-up their building," Mr Dawes said.
"I don't think that's something that an owners' corporation should be left to handle."
For tenants, who make up half the state's strata residents, repairs and maintenance remains "one of the biggest issues" according to advocates.
Leo Patterson Ross from the Tenants' Union of NSW said it was likely that Building Commissioner David Chandler would identify structural issues with yet more apartment complexes.
"There's a lot of work to do. I suspect that there's a lot of buildings that haven't yet been properly treated for all of their issues, but hopefully there's not too many that are at real imminent risk of collapse," he said.
"Although he's identified more than a few that are now on his various registers for either remediation required or people can't live there anymore.
"This issue arises because we haven't been treating housing as an essential service that needs quality control and consideration of the regulatory structure all the way along the line."
Reform 'a very slow boat to turn'
Those working on the coalface in fixing and preventing building defects are adamant about how much the regulatory landscape has changed since Mascot Towers.
Alongside new powers given to the Building Commissioner, a five-star rating system for builders and developers called iCIRT and 10-year defect insurance for apartment buildings is now in place.
Ross Taylor, a specialist consultant who works on fixing major waterproofing problems, said it was becoming much harder for bad builders to operate in the new environment.
"We've come a bloody long way," Mr Taylor said.
"There has been more achieved in positive regulatory reform in the building industry with regard to quality, or the end result for consumers than had been achieved in the previous three decades."
Strata Community Australasia president Chris Duggan agrees it's an "imperfect" system, but argues there had been serious improvements in recent years.
"It's a very slow boat to turn but those green shoots are there," Mr Duggan said.
"When you compare the landscape as it was three or four years ago when those catastrophes occurred in Mascot and Opal towers to where we are now, I don't think you can compare them because we have moved so far.
"You can never say never that we're not going to see another repeat … there are always circumstances where buildings may not be maintained the way they're intended but I don't think we'll see the quality issues we've seen historically."
Mr Duggan was among a panel of industry figures who helped design the insurance product that covers defects such as waterproofing and structural faults for the first 10 years after completion.
He said it put the onus on insurers and developers to ensure there were stringent checks on quality through the entire construction phase.
"That's the key. Once we get builders and developers and consumers on the same page around what is a quality project and developer, then we can see those products start to be built off the back of them," he said.
"We're seeing that consumer sentiment turn. But that doesn't mean that there hasn't been some legacy issues which of course [causes] pain."
Owners who've already fallen through the cracks like Leith Dawes say the changes don't go far enough.
"I think that might even just widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots," he said.
"The prices of the developments that are going to have the complete vetting and thorough diligence done will be met with a higher price tag.
"And given how strained the real estate market is in Sydney, I think there still will be people that were forced by virtue of no other option but to purchase something that is let's say riskier from a due diligence point of view."
'The stress is beyond words'
More than four years into the Mascot Towers saga, Rachel Williams and her husband remain unsure what the future holds, and fear any improvement in regulations has come too late.
"It doesn't help our situation because it's obviously already happened. Yes, we have a new government but it's not being acted upon fast enough," Ms Williams said.
"I most definitely would not encourage anyone to buy a brand new apartment, you'd be OK buying an old three-storey red brick block but it's too risky."
The pair struggles to cover the mortgage repayments and $5,000 in quarterly strata fees for an apartment they can't live in.
"The stress is beyond words. If anyone asks my husband how it is all going with Mascot Towers, the blood completely rushes out of his face, he can't talk about it," she said.
"He's so traumatised and devastated to the point we travel into the city and return home on the airport train line, he cannot come through the airport train tunnel because it makes him feel physically sick. Because the apartment is directly above and that was his dream apartment."
NSW Fair Trading and the Building Commissioner declined an interview.
In a statement, NSW Minister for Building, Fair Trading and Better Regulation Anoulack Chanthivong acknowledged there was still progress to be made on building reform.
"Bipartisan reform has started to restore trust in the building sector but the last government didn't go far enough. We've got more work to do to give people confidence in the home they buy," he said.
"That's why one of the premier's earliest commitments after the election was to get on with work to supercharge the impact of the building commissioner.
"We're also working to create a new Building Act … This work will provide clarity to consumers about their rights and create clear and enforceable accountabilities for the industry.
Mr Chanthivong said the situation surrounding Toplace would become clear once the administrator examined its finances.
"Dodgy builders should pay for their dodgy work, so we're urging Toplace's administrator to act quickly and provide certainty to owners," he said.
"NSW Fair Trading is working with Strata Communities Australia (NSW) and the Owners Corporation Network to assist strata managers and owners within Toplace buildings."