By Thia James

Councillor turns to Winnipeg to solve problem of boarded houses

Apr 17, 2013 | 6:11 AM

One city councillor is looking to Winnipeg for a model for its bylaws to deal with the problem of houses that are boarded up around Prince Albert.

Councillor Charlene Miller put forward a motion during Monday evening’s council meeting to look at Winnipeg’s bylaw that deals with vacant houses. “So we can have more teeth in our bylaws for a bylaw to do something about the houses that are derelict in communities, so we can do something about them.”

Council passed Miller’s motion to send the Winnipeg bylaw to administration in Prince Albert to see how the city could upgrade regulations.

In Prince Albert, the problem is there are homes that are boarded up, some are burned, Miller said.
“And we need landlords to take care of their houses.”

Miller said she is getting safety-related complaints about the run-down homes.

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She said the Winnipeg bylaw allows the city to send officials to houses that are boarded up on streets where no other houses are boarded up to find out what’s wrong with the property.

From there, she said they decide whether to tear down the house or to see what the landlord is going to do about it.

Miller said she hopes upgrading the Prince Albert bylaws will lead to more landlords complying with the regulations.

The problem with the run-down vacant homes is not limited to one part of the city. Coun. Lee Atkinson said there are houses in his ward that are boarded up.

“There are a number of things that have been boarded up for some time. There are some recently burned in the fall and they’re kind of still sitting there,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson tried to bring up the Winnipeg bylaw to a previous council, but he said that wasn’t “overly accepted.”

“I think the Winnipeg bylaw, if we can endorse some of those items out of there, it would give us some real teeth,” he said.

Winnipeg’s vacant property bylaw outlines the minimum standards property owners have to maintain. If the property owner fails to follow the rules, they face higher fines with every offence.

Atkinson said Winnipeg’s bylaw allows the city to seize properties – as the ultimate punishment – and if the property isn’t viable, the city can knock it down.

And as councillors look to strengthen Prince Albert’s vacant property bylaws, Atkinson said the situation has been improving to some degree.

“It’s about bringing the housing standards up to something that’s reasonable. I don’t think that anyone should have to live in substandard housing,” he said.

But he also points to one home that has been boarded up for about six years.

“We want the city to grow. We want the city to be viable. And quite frankly, it doesn’t really provide investment if you’ve got a bunch of derelict housing in an area. Why would anyone want to build anything new there?”

In Prince Albert, all properties are governed by the property amenities bylaw and the maintenance and occupancy bylaw. Both bylaws allow for individuals to be fined up to $10,000 if they are found guilty of a summary offences – in this case, failure to comply with an order made by a bylaw officer regarding this bylaw.

The city’s acting director of development and planning, and chief building official, Kim Johnson, said that when they are called onto the site they apply the conditions of the bylaws to the building.He said they’re usually called in because of the condition of the property or it’s not “site secured.”

“What we’re looking for, is if it’s vacant and there’s nobody living in it, have the doors and windows been locked out, boarded up, so that basically I don’t have anybody easily breaking in or using it as a squatting location or that type of thing.”

Johnson said most of the calls generally come from neighbours, but the city officials are called on site by the bylaw officers as experts.

The city officials would then have engineers or other experts assess the property. Those experts would outline what fixes would be needed to bring the building up to a safe condition, Johnson said. An order would be issued to the property owners requiring them to make those fixes.

Owners can appeal, but in cases where the owner is required to comply but doesn’t, the city will then take the next course of action or court process.

The length of time given to comply with an order is determined on a case-by-case basis, Johnson said.

By comparison, Winnipeg’s vacant properties bylaw requires action to be taken by the owner within 10 days of receiving an order. Failure to comply with an order or with a bylaw means a fine of $500 for the first offence, $1,000 for a second offence, and $2,000 for all offences following.

Johnson said there’s no real means of determining where non-compliance with property orders is likely to be.

“Occasionally you get the same names back, but it’s not all that common.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames