ston apartment block, despite accusations by experts that it over-reacted.

The council last week agreed to amend its emergency order on eight of the 10 Pine Hill Drive apartments to allow tenants and owners back in if specified works were undertaken within a week.

But chief executive George Modrich insisted there would be no compensation offered to occupants, who were given less than 24 hours' notice to evacuate by 5pm on August 17 after the building's receiver asked the council to check the safety of the structure following complaints about issues including water damage.

"While council appreciates the impact on residents, the municipal building surveyor assessed the building was unsafe and acted in the best interest of safety of the occupants," Mr Modrich said in a written statement to The Independent. "Council's position remains that these apartments were unsafe for occupation and this is why an emergency order was issued."

However, Building Commissioner Tony Arnel said independent experts backed up the regulatory body's view that a blanket evacuation order had been an over-reaction and only two apartments were uninhabitable. "While there are obvious problems with this building, our investigation concluded the issuing of an emergency order, requiring the immediate evacuation of all the apartments, was not warranted in the circumstances," Mr Arnel said.

"There are often emergency orders issued in the case of fires and where there are buildings that are about to collapse, but this is the first time that I can recall that, on the basis of an emergency order, 10 families have been evacuated from a building where they have actually occupied it for about 10 months." He recommended the council call the commission if it again became concerned about a building's safety "before the consequences we have seen at Pine Hill Drive occur again".

The commission is investigating the builder and a private building surveyor who granted an occupancy permit for the apartments. Former resident Polly Winter said she and husband Kevin had decided to drop thoughts of a time-consuming and expensive law suit.