Alberta landlord’s bid to evict driveway squatter ‘a nightmare’
CARDSTON, Alta. — A southern Alberta landlord is hoping the courts will help him with a squatter living in a small shack sitting on a trailer in the driveway of the man’s rental property.
“What can you do? Our hands are tied and nobody’s prepared to help,” said Ivan Negrych, who is attempting to remove Bob Cox from the property in the town of Cardston, about 235 kilometres southeast of Calgary.
“It’s kind of turning into a nightmare.”
Negrych said he had been renting the five-bedroom home to Cox’s former common-law wife. The woman and two daughters allowed him to move in after he was injured in a car accident about 18 months ago. She moved out Sept. 30 and Negrych rented out the property to another person within days.
“[Cox] moved in and now he’s refusing to move out,” said Negrych.
He said Cox, who wasn’t reachable by phone, is perfectly happy living in the small wooden, windowless shack still parked in the driveway.
“It’s roughly 12 feet by eight [feet] and it’s on a little channelframe trailer with little wheels on it. It has no brakes. No electricity. He’s pulling electricity from the house from an extension cord.”
Cox said he has squatter’s rights. He told CTV News he hopes to move soon, but isn’t ready to do so yet.
The problem, said Negrych, is Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act. “Once [tenants are] in, you can’t get them out. It takes several months, because the process is so long … to get a judgment and eviction court order,” Negrych said.
He said the RCMP have told him it’s a civil matter.