Know where you stand
Subsidence zones not always known to home owners and buyers
Pictou County’s coal mining history can sometimes come to the surface in unwanted ways. With expensive sink holes opening up in recent years, such as on Diamond Street in 2011, a general knowledge of these subsidence-prone areas is widespread. As one longtime resident of a subsidence-prone neighbourhood in Stellarton put it, “These are mining houses, I figured this was over a mine shaft. Everyone in Pictou County knows that.” But there still seems to be a lack in the communication of specific properties impacted. For instance, business owner Jane Wile of Westville only learned about the subsidence zone impacting her property after buying it. For people like her who buy property with the intention to develop, not knowing can be costly. “I would have gone somewhere else,” Wile told The News in January, months after learning from the town that her property was on a subsidence. Her plans to develop the property have been stalled as a result, and could cost her more money for geo-testing. In Wile’s case, neither she nor the previous owner claim to have known about the small subsidence on Main Street in Westville. The county’s subsidenceprone lands are indicated in a 2016 Land Use bylaw. According to that bylaw, which was agreed upon by all of Pictou County’s six municipalities, the impact that underground mining might have on land in the subsidence zone must be determined by a geo-engineer before any new development can take place there.
For existing properties, owners only need to consult a geo-engineer if they want to make changes to the property, like building an extension. Zoning these subsidenceprone areas is a municipal responsibility, and according to the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors, the deeds for subsidence-prone properties should reflect that. “If this is actually zoned, then it would be noted on the deed,” said NSAR communications director, Tanya White. From there, White said that the subsidence can be disclosed to the buyer by the realtor. “If it is known by the realtor, all latent defects are to be disclosed to the buyer by the showing realtor and should be passed along to them at the time of the property showing,” said White. “The only thing that was on the deed was that lands had formerly been owned by Intercolonial Mining,” said Wile. “There wasn’t anything about zoning on the deed though, and I didn’t hear anything until August, three months after I bought it.” The website ViewPoint. ca indicates property sales throughout the province. Inside the Stellarton subsidence zones, four properties had been purchased since 2016. One of these property owners, who had moved into the neighbourhood in September 2019, told The News that they had not been told of the subsidence. “If I was told that, then I would remember,” said Jenn Kaiser, another home owner who bought her property in 2013. While neither homeowner is concerned, Sherry Blinkhorn, realtor and owner Blinkhorn Real Estate, says she would like to see municipalities take a more active role in sharing subsidence information. “The towns should make this information more readily available to the public and for realtors so that we can ensure our clients have as much information as possible when purchasing,” said Blinkhorn, adding many people also have a false impression that subsidence zones are everywhere, when in fact they are only in a handful of places throughout the municipalities. “It does come up from time to time, especially when you’ve got people moving here and they start chatting to the locals about subsidence. Then all of a sudden they don’t even want to look.” As for the impacted municipalities of Westville and Stellarton, the information is accessible to the public online. “It’s public knowledge,” said Stellarton town clerk Susan Higdon. “It’s online, or if they call the town and ask, then it’s something we tell them.”