A poor Sydney bloke accidentally had his home demolished yesterday, after a mix-up dating 15 years pointed the demolition company to the wrong property. The owner of said demolition company is said to be “gutted”, a quote we absolutely did not make up.
The whole debacle was the subject of last night’s A Current Affair, which got to the bottom of this highly confusing mix-up.
Basically, owner Steve Ballas believed that when he bought his Bankstown property 15 years ago, he was purchasing 200, Marion St. The number ‘200’ appears on the letterbox, after all, and when workers from Daniel’s Demolitions rocked up to the property yesterday, they saw the number 200 and got to work, razing the three-bedder to the ground.
But here’s the thing: Ballas actually owned number 198. The *real* number 200 was in fact his next-door neighbour, and that’s the house the council had approved to be demolished. But the demolition workers made the same mistake Ballas had (taking the number on the letterbox at face value), and flattened the wrong house, a mistake that was only realised when Ballas rocked up to the property yesterday.
“It was all done without my approval,” he said. “All I know is I thought I owned 200 Marion Street, Bankstown, and it was a little house I was going to rent. But obviously I don’t have that house anymore.”
The owner of the demolition company is said to be feeling “sick”, too.
Source: A Current Affair.
Photo: A Current Affair.
