The asbestos taskforce has conceded an exception was made to allow the owners of one dual occupancy block the first right to buy back their property.
The owners of the Fluffy home were also given the price to buy their land back at the time they sold their house to the government - unlike the rest of the more than 1000 homeowners caught up in the Fluffy crisis, who must wait until their blocks are ready for sale to get their price. For some, that leaves them paying 2017 prices for land they sold to the government at October 2014 prices.
![Asbestos taskforce head Andrew Kefford: A special case was made for an inner south Fluffy property because of the need ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20171003110625im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/g/b/0/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxdbl5.png/1500418620983.jpg)
The special deal for the inner south property required ministerial approval, from former minister Simon Corbell in 2015. The owners were also asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so neither they nor the taskforce were prepared to discuss the detail this week.
The case came to light after Fairfax Media published details of a Turner dual occupancy, in which the owner has been denied the first right to buy back her property, despite owning both properties on the block.
![Real-estate agent David Whittem, who says it is unbelievable that the owner of this Turner Fluffy block has been denied ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20171003110625im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/b/d/t/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxdbl5.png/1500418620983.jpg)
Most Fluffy owners are being given the first right to buy back their blocks once the homes are demolished, at a price set by the government. If owners reject the offer, the blocks are offered to the government land agency and housing directorate. Then they are sold on the open market.
But the taskforce says the first right of refusal doesn't apply to dual occupancy and other unit-titled blocks because the process is more complicated, involving negotiations with the other owners on the block.
After Huong Phan questioned why she couldn't buy back the front property on her block in Towns Crescent, Turner, The Canberra Times was alerted to the inner south case, in which the owners of a dual occupancy made a special deal with the government for the buyback demolition and repurchase, early in 2015.
Asbestos taskforce head Andrew Kefford said the exception was made in the inner south because the case was complicated. As well as being on a dual occupancy block, with a separately owned home behind, the house was a duplex, attached to a separately owned and titled home that was being demolished privately.
"Mr Corbell made the decision, or accepted our recommendation, that the best way to achieve consistency on the assisted private demolition on [one] side and demolition of this one, at one time in a way that was both safe and most efficient for the territory, was to, in effect, meet the owners' demands on the front half of the unit-titled one for a first right of refusal," he said.
"It is genuinely unique, that is the only place where it has happened."
The deal had needed ministerial approval because it was "outside the normal standard policy".
The owners did not want to comment.
Mr Kefford said he had been given no indication that the land agency or Housing ACT wanted the Towns Crescent, Turner, block, which he expected would be sold on the open market.