Court gives Saskatoon green light to demolish vacant, damaged home
SASKATOON A Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench judge has decided the city can move forward with demolishing a Briarwood home.
The decision was announced Friday, after a 10-day suspension was ordered Oct. 1 to allow owner Yu Liu, who resides in China, to gather materials necessary for a full injunction that would prevent the city from demolishing the house.
In his written decision, Justice Richard Elson dismissed an application for an injunction. However, he stated he hopes the city will hold off until it can be determined whether the home is salvageable.
“In my view, the demolition of the home without such a determination would be very unfortunate,” Elson wrote.
Court heard Oct. 1 that Liu believed the 2,318-square-foot property at 166 Beechdale Crescent was being managed in his absence. Court documents show utilities were disconnected in 2016, the same year Liu purchased the home while living in Saskatoon.
The City of Saskatoon issued two orders to Liu to fix the deteriorating home in March and May. Those went unanswered; Liu was not in the country to see them.
Elson said his main concern was the extent of the court’s jurisdiction in the issue.
“If I had the power of Solomon, it would be really easy to decide this case,” he said. “But I don’t have that power and have to make the decisions based on the law. I’m not sure the law favours the position (Liu) is taking.”
Elson said if the city were to demolish the home there likely wouldn’t be a new owner-occupied home on the property for at least a year.
“I ask myself: is that what the neighbours want? Is that what the city wants?” he said. Taking all factors into account makes the situation complex, the judge said, comparing the situation to “pounding Jell-o to the wall.”
Court heard Friday that Liu’s legal team filed a statement of claim against Weisheng “Sky” Wu, the person Liu believed was managing the Briarwood property.
Wu had no representative in court Friday, nor has he submitted a statement of defence. A management agreement between Liu and Wu was included in Liu’s submitted materials.
Because Liu’s allegation of liability is against Wu and not the City of Saskatoon, Elson said the key issue at play was whether he could tell the city what to do or not do. In his decision, he said there was no strength to the case against the city and it hadn’t acted wrongfully in starting the demolition process.
Elke Churchman, Liu’s lawyer, told court that as soon as Liu found out about the demolition, he had an engineering report completed for the property that found there was no structural damage.
He also sent a crew to remove toxic materials, but the city has since issued a stop work order.
The Bank of Nova Scotia, which owns the home’s mortgage, was unaware of the situation until this week because Liu had been up-todate with his mortgage payments, lawyer David Gerecke said. The institution only became aware of the situation on Thursday morning after receiving a letter about it from one of Liu’s lawyers.
Gerecke presented a plan from the bank to figure out whether it’s economically viable to salvage the home. Elson said in his decision that he hopes Liu and the bank can work together to do so.
According to an affidavit from the bank presented to the court, the amount owing on the mortgage is under $272,500, while the assessed value of the home is about $650,000. Undamaged, it is projected to sell for $570,000580,000. The land was last appraised at $200,000 in 2012.
Gerecke said the bank has been in touch with the city and has requested time for professionals to complete evaluations of the property with reports in a week’s time, then another week to make decisions.
City solicitor Alan Rankine confirmed the city was considering the plan and said it was the most concrete thing it had heard.