Defect-riddled apartments covered in mould could be write-offs as repair costs mount

Black mould is being uncovered in the walls of defective apartment blocks, in what experts describe as an "absolute catastrophe".

Workers have laid bare wall cavities riddled with black mould and rotten timber in poorly constructed apartment buildings that have been assessed under Victoria's cladding rectification regime.

One of the buildings identified — an 81-dwelling apartment complex in Clayton in Melbourne's south-east — has internal framework which has been substantially rotted out by water damage and mould.