Evelyn had a dream. After fleeing an abusive marriage and enduring a bruising custody battle she wanted to build a new home – a new life, a new future – for herself and her two-year-old son.
Three years later, she's living a nightmare.
Brought to the brink of financial ruin by a building company – led by Family First Senator Bob Day – that's running a year behind schedule, she has just taken forcible control of her unfinished home in Sydney's west.
There's no electricity, no gas, no hot water. The floor is concrete. The kitchen, plumbing and tiling is unfinished.
Evelyn – not her real name – knows it's not safe or secure for her now five-year-old but she simply had nowhere else to go when her landlord evicted her from her rental last month because she'd fallen behind. She could no longer keep up with the full repayments on her house on top of rent.
With no family nearby, the alternative was the streets.
Evelyn showers at the gym near her office. Her son showers at his babysitter's house.
"At night when we're home we use candles," she says. "We borrow some electricity from my neighbour for my fridge. We cook on a little portable stove. I just thank God the toilets are functioning."
The granny flat she had built out the back to serve as a second source of income sits similarly unfinished and empty.
Evelyn is an educated professional. She works for a good company for a good wage. She's not on welfare or drugs.
She's just been a victim of what appears to be terrible mismanagement by Day's Huxley Homes.
Endless delays and a revolving door of site managers and other staff means even now her home is nowhere near complete. She complains, too, of bullying, threats and harassment from Huxley staff.
"It's making me insane, I'm going through post-traumatic stress disorder now. It has been an absolute torture," she said.
"And it's affecting my relationship with my son. I can't afford to feed him properly, I can't afford to entertain him. He couldn't go on a school excursion because I simply could not afford a $25 one-off payment."
She's become isolated from her friends because she can't stand the embarrassment of her own situation.
Huxley is the NSW arm of Day's national building empire. All told, he has five companies under his national Home Australia umbrella. The Victorian arm, Ashford Homes, has also been the subject of numerous complaints.
But Huxley appears to be in particular trouble. Customers and contractors alike are questioning whether it's still solvent.
Its licence is up for renewal on October 14 but it's unclear whether the company has or will even apply.
Even if the company does apply its renewal could be refused based on an ever-growing mountain of customer complaints, unpaid tradies, unheeded rectification orders and mounting fines.
Fair Trading NSW has fined Huxley and Senator Day more than $40,000 for failing to comply with rectification orders, with the latest fines coming just two weeks ago.
"Under home building legislation, a licence cannot be renewed if the licensee has not complied with tribunal orders made against it. Huxley has several outstanding tribunal orders. If it has not complied with the orders, any renewal application may be refused," a Fair Trading spokeswoman said.
If the company goes under, it could drag Day's empire down with it. If Day is ultimately declared bankrupt, the pro-government crossbencher could be booted out of the Senate seat he retained on July 2.
In the meantime, dozens of families have been left in the lurch. Twenty-five of Huxley's 61 NSW customers, all suffering financial distress due to delays or shoddy work, have banded together to take on the company.
Evelyn's story is among the most dramatic but she's not alone.
Melinda and Stuart Bunt just recently managed to get out of their contract with Huxley after the construction of their home in Mona Vale ran more than a year over schedule, with months of work remaining.
They estimate Huxley did just 22 days of actual on-site work in all of 2015.
They've now hired their own tradies to finish the job – hopefully by mid-November, 16 months late – leaving them at least $40,000 out of pocket.
"It's been terrible, financially and emotionally," Ms Bunt says.
"We've been paying two mortgages for two years when it shouldn't have been anywhere near that long."
The Bunts have met with Senator Day but only after pestering him into a meeting in August. They say they even managed to extract a begrudging apology from him but he spent most of the time blaming others.
"He really doesn't care," she says. "His mantra is 'for every Australian a job and a house' and that really riles us.
"He is a senator, getting paid by us the taxpayer, but putting so many of us through financial and emotional heartache.
"We don't have our homes, he's sending us into bankruptcy – but at the same time he's funding his political party."
Official records show Senator Day has donated and loaned an estimated $2 million to Family First over the past few years.
It's understood he has now put his own Adelaide home up as security in a bid to cover his company's unpaid debts.
Asked a list of detailed questions about the state and future of Huxley and Home Australia, Senator Day's office responded with a short statement.
"When I became a senator I left the building business. I only stepped back in to help after others' poor management decisions affected some customers and suppliers," he said.
"It is important to fix the problems and I am working to ensure everyone who is owed money is paid and every customer's home is finished – as the company has done for over 30 years. Secondly, all businesses have problems. The only reason Fairfax are interested is that the business is linked to a sitting senator."
The last financial statement to ASIC from Home Australia, for the year ending June 2012, included a warning from its independent auditor that the company's liabilities exceeded its assets by nearly $30 million.
If Huxley goes under, customers will be able to make claims under their insurance. Until then, it's continued uncertainty.
Another customer – whose house had to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch because the original build was so poor – offers some colourful descriptions for Senator Day that cannot be reprinted here.
"He doesn't give a crap about customers," is one of the milder things the man has to say. "If Huxley fails the whole house of cards will come down, he'll lose everything. And frankly, he deserves it.
"He's the scum of the Earth."
Evelyn agrees.
"Bob Day should not be a part of this party because Family First means putting families first – families like mine. Me and my son are family and we need the basics – food, water and shelter," she said."I can't lose this property, that I have spent so much money, blood and sweat on with a dream to build a future for my son."
