Overgrown property causing concern for neighbours

They’ve called the RCMP, they’ve filed complaints, but neighbours of a Brunswick Street property have watched a vacant house decay for years and the yard become overgrown.

While it might seem like nothing is being done, especially to neighbours who are seeing squatters moving into the vacant house, the reality is it can be a lengthy process for the city to get to a point where they can take action on a vacant building or nuisance property, especially in a case like this, where the owner died and the family is sorting out how the property is going to be handled.

Ken Kunka, Penticton’s building and permitting manager, said they’ve seen a few properties like this.

“It’s typically an older couple. It just becomes a big mess with the estate,” said Kunka. “We are kind of running through it with kid gloves, trying to help, I believe it is the daughter, get to a point of compliance.”

What is happening on Brunswick Street isn’t unusual. There are a number of vacant properties and even more unsightly premise complaints city hall is dealing with.

Part of the problem for getting these premises cleaned up are the steps the city has to go through in order to be able to take action.

“It’s not a quick process. Especially with a building that is not a derelict building. It is in rough shape and it is an untidy premise, but it is not necessarily unsafe,” said Kunka.

Related: Penticton declares Ellis Street property a nuisance

The first step in being able to take action is getting to the point where the city can declare a property a nuisance. That involves back and forth with the owner, notices and encouraging them to take their own measures to deal with a vacant building or clean up an unsightly property.

“That’s the idea, we want them to comply with the bylaws,” said Kunka. “Education and working with owners are our number one goal.

“In a situation where we do get in and find it structurally comprised, unsafe electrical, those kinds of things, not ready to be re-inhabited, we can move to the process of declaring it unsafe.”

That requires council support and careful management of the steps taken.

“If we do step out of line, we can actually be pursued by the owner through legal action,” said Kunka.

Unsightly premise complaints are dealt with by the bylaw department, and bylaw supervisor Tina Siebert says they have streamlined their process to be able to move quicker on them, though it still takes time.

“We are still complaint-based. That is our current capacity, to respond based on a complaint. If it does come in, we do an inspection as soon as we can,” said Siebert.

It can sometimes take a bit of time before that inspection can be done, but once the level of unsightliness is determined, a remedial — cleanup— notice is issued, giving the owners a period to comply, ranging from a week to a month, depending on the complexity of the issue.

If there are no signs of compliance, fines are the next step, and eventually, the city can take action and clean up the property, sending the bill to the registered owner.

“We do have quite a few that we want to deal with in the next couple of months. There are so many that are kind of at the cusp of ‘this is going to become a problem,’” Siebert said.

Dealing with vacant buildings is also complex, Kunka said, though there aren’t as many of those as unsightly properties.

“Untidy, by far, is a bigger issue. With the vacant buildings, we are seeing so much development activity. Usually, a property won’t sit for very long,” said Kunka.

“In our new building bylaw, we’ve put in some authority for the city to start acting on these unsafe condition issues, especially if it is a building that is unserviced or no electrical.

“Maybe using candles or no washroom facilities, so it becomes unsafe sanitary conditions.”

Kunka said city staff are also discussing proposing a rental maintenance bylaw, to give the city better tools to deal with properties like the infamous, and now dealt with, property at 377 Winnipeg St.

Related: Action taken on nuisance property

A big part of the problem is having enough staff to deal with the cases.

“The more bylaws, the more people you need to enforce them,” said Siebert. “On our end, we are being faced with a lot of social issues, which takes existing staff away from dealing with some of these types of files.”

Kunka said there is a lot of backlog for the building department too. “We have over 110 case files this year created for various reasons. It’s a lot to wade through, but once we gain some momentum we can move forward,” said Kunka. “We’re planning next year, on the vacant building side, to start ramping it up a bit more.”

In the case of the Brunswick Street property, the neighbours have hope. Jennifer Wells, an inspector with the building department, says they are nearing the point where the case can be taken before city council to get support for action on the property.