Surrey crackdown on secondary suites sparks protest
There’s no place like home suite home.
Nearly 100 residents rallied outside Surrey City Hall on Sunday afternoon to protest the city’s crackdown on secondary suites in Clayton Heights.
“What the city is doing is completely wrong. You can’t evict people because of parking complaints,” said homeowner and organizer Greg Garner. “Even just to say it sounds completely ridiculous. You get a parking complaint, you pay your ticket and you move on — you don’t get evicted afterward.”
The rally comes after several Surrey homeowners were told to shut down their illegal secondary suites this fall; the orders came as a result of what the city said were chronic complaints about the lack of parking in the area and other related issues.
Residents, however, say the city’s been misleading with their reasons for the crackdown, after several homeowners asked to see what complaints had been filed on their individual properties and were given no results.
Garner, who has a basement suite and a detached coach house, said it’s unfair that the city would deem his coach house illegal but still collect the associated servicing fee until suddenly issuing him an order to shut it down.
“At the end of the day, you collected our money which legalized our suites,” said Garner. “The whole process doesn’t even make sense. You’ve legalized these suites, people are living in these suites, they’re happy living in these suites, and want to continue living in these suites.”
The city charges a secondary suite servicing fee of $568.28 and up to $144 for garbage, recycling and organics collection for each registered suite. Water and sewer charges are based on consumption for metered customers, but those who aren’t metered pay another $332 for water and $580 for sewer each year.
In response, residents have launched an online petition to “stop the evictions” and organized the rally on Sunday afternoon. As of Sunday morning, a total of 2,707 people had signed the petition (5,000 signatures are required). Meanwhile, about 100 people attended the Sunday’s rally.
While the city had initially sent letters to 175 property owners, ordering them to close the suites by Jan. 31, 2018 or face fines and legal action, Mayor Linda Hepner has since said enforcement is on hold while the city examines other options.
Throughout Surrey, there are 2,332 properties with two registered suites.