The developers of an apartment building where owners have been ordered to pay $2 million to remove dangerous cladding, are the same developers who illegally demolished a historic Melbourne pub, the Today Show can reveal.

Just over a year ago, 28-year-old primary school teacher Blair Warren-Smith bought an apartment in an inner Melbourne. It was all checked off by the proper authorities including fire engineers before purchase.

Now it’s turned into a cladding nightmare. She’s been slugged almost $8000 for emergency works, such as removing all wooden items from outdoor areas, and is facing having to pay up to $100,000 to remove the cladding all together.

Blair Warren-Smith has been caught up in Victoria's cladding crisis. "It's money I don't have," she said. (Nine)

“It’s really worrying... it’s horrible” she says fighting back tears.

“It’s having a massive impact, I can’t use my outdoor area, it’s money that I don’t have that I can’t just throw away."

The developers of her inner-city apartment block are Raman Shaqiri and Stefce Kutlesovski. They are the same developers who in February were fined $1.3 million over the illegal demolition of the 160-year-old Corkman Irish Pub in Carlton in 2016.

Their behaviour was described by Magistrate Ross Maxted as “reprehensible”.

Owners of the apartment block have tried to get in touch with the duo, but they have gone to ground.

Pictures from inside the Neo200 building in Spencer Street, Melbourne, shortly after the fire (Supplied)

“The body corporate has been in touch and they are not responding to any of the requests that have been made to the builder,” Miss Blair Warren-Smith said.

Opposition planning minister Tim Smith said the Victorian Government needed to help residents pay for the enormous cost of removing the cladding.

‘I feel very sorry for her [Blair] because she has done nothing wrong. In fact, she has done everything right and the system has completely let her down,” Mr Smith said.

“The Victorian Building Authority is the regulator, it has failed. Therefore the Government has a responsibility to help people involved in this fiasco they have to stump up the money.”

Miss Warren-Smith said her property is now worth nothing because no one is going to buy a place with combustible cladding. She is now left with a massive bill she says she can’t pay.

“I think in theory you are meant to take a loan from the bank but I am fully mortgaged so I can’t take a loan from the bank.”

Testing shows how flammable the cladding samples from Victorian buildings were found to be (Nine)

“At the time the cladding was okay and now it is not and someone needs to take responsibility for that because the owners can’t do it,” she said.

Mr Smith believes the State and Federal Government needs to step in to help financially and the building industry too.

“Are we going to wait until someone dies before we do something about this?” he said.

When the regulator, the Victorian Building Authority identifies that a building contains cladding, it’s tested to see just how bad it is and whether it needs to be removed.

The Today Show has been given exclusive access into one of the top labs testing different cladding samples taken from buildings.

Pictures from inside the Neo200 building in Spencer Street, Melbourne, shortly after the fire (Supplied)

“We do the testing on the cladding to make sure it meets the rules and regulations in Australia”, said ExcelPlas senior scientist Frank Bambino.

“If there is more than 70 percent flame retardant it’s at a safe level and will reduce the combustibility of the building, but if there is more than 30 percent polyethylene the risk of combustion is a lot higher and the chance of a fire is quite high,” he said.

I ask if residents are sweating on these results, “absolutely” Mr Bambino replied.

The results Excelplas have from testing these cladding samples are frightening.

“We analyse about 10 to 15 samples a day and approximately 60 per cent fail, they do not pass, that cladding should be removed,” he said.

Pictures from inside the Neo200 building in Spencer Street, Melbourne, shortly after the fire (Supplied)

When the samples first come to the lab they are analysed on a computer, then they are set alight to test its combustibility.

Lab technician Trent Scheirs puts a cladding sample containing pure polyethylene in a kiln, within seconds it ignites.

Once it finishes burning, nothing is left.

“The crucible you are holding it had no flame retardant and it all burns away completely, it burns to nothing in the space of a couple of minutes,” said Mr Scheirs.

Mr Bambino explained what that means for people living in these affected buildings. “It’s like having candle wax in a building once it lights up it will keep on going.”

The Today Show contacted the office of planning minister Richard Wynne for comment but he declined to be interviewed.