Heritage home is both vacant and in disrepair
City posts legal notice on level ‘B’ heritage building
Louis Lapprend says there’s a “mystery” in the century-old brick home next-door.
He noticed something was awry last month, on what seems like one of the only days this year when it wasn’t raining in Vancouver.
Despite that day’s dry, sunny weather, the empty house immediately west of Lapprend’s Strathcona home, he said, was wet, dripping water through the exterior walls. The house has been vacant since it sold last May, Lapprend said.
“Here we have an abandoned house, literally rotting away. As for where the water is coming from, it’s a mystery,” he said.
Lapprend made a number of calls to 311, the number for reporting issues to the city, and watched as fire crews and property inspectors made a series of visits to the Keefer Street home over the last five weeks to deal with the leak.
It turns out the city has seen an increase in complaints about vacant houses, and recently created a new reporting protocol. This year also marks the first time Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax will be applied. The measure, the first in Canada and controversial in some circles, aims to increase the housing supply and relieve pressure on Vancouver’s rental housing market, which has an unfortunate combination of the country’s highest rental costs and a rental vacancy rate below one per cent.
Lapprend, a 34-year-old web developer, understands the leaky, empty house next-door might not be the top priority for city hall. But, as someone worried about both potential damage to his own home as well as the broader situation of housing in the city, he felt it was worth reporting.
Kaye Krishna, the city’s general manager of development, buildings, and licensing, agreed it’s worth reporting.
“It is the owner’s responsibility to secure the home and to make sure that it’s safe, and it’s not a nuisance. And they’re not doing that,” said Krishna.
“They haven’t been taking care of their property, clearly, for some time now. So it’s a problem.”
Krishna said the city “started seeing an increase (last year) in vacant homes, and there wasn’t a clear pathway for people to get focused attention on it,” so in response, they created a dedicated 311 category last fall for empty “nuisance homes,” and took extra measures to secure them.
However, this particular Keefer home’s continually reoccurring leaking, Krishna said, was unusual.
The city has received a number of 311 calls about the 518 Keefer property, sent crews a few times to visit starting April 2, and contacted the owner, who, Krishna said, “has not, to my knowledge, been all that responsive.”
“What I’ve suggested to the team, because we’ve received so many complaints about this, is we see if we can expedite that,” Krishna said.
On Friday, a legal notice from the City of Vancouver was posted on the front door of the residence, advising that the city’s property use inspector had found the house’s front window was open to the public “and is therefore deemed to be in an unsafe condition and a hazard to public safety.” The notice orders the recipient to board up all exterior openings “IMMEDIATELY and thereafter maintain the building in a secure condition.”
On Friday morning, while it was (for once) not raining, the sound of falling water inside was audible from out front of the house.
The Keefer Street house is listed in Vancouver’s Heritage Register as a level “B” heritage building, meaning it has “significant” heritage value and “may have some documented historical or cultural significance in a neighbourhood.”
Property records show 518 Keefer was sold in May 2016 for $1.2 million and the buyer was a company called 518 Holdings Ltd. Corporate records show 518 Holdings Ltd. was incorporated in March 2016 and the sole director is listed as Yani C. Jin.
Jin, a realtor with Re/Max, said she bought the house with plans to develop it and turn it into a three-unit rental property, and said she’s submitted a building permit application to city hall.
After Postmedia News tried to contact Jin by phone and email, she replied late Friday afternoon to say the leak had been fixed that afternoon.
“We are not sure what is happening with the leaking,” Jin said, but added the problem may have been caused by squatters.
The house’s previous residents were the Liu family, who run Kam Wai Dim Sum in nearby Chinatown.
William Liu, 28, who lived in the house his whole life until recently, said his family had been saddened to learn their beloved home had turned into a rotting nuisance for both neighbours and city workers.
“It’s extremely sad for us,” Liu said Friday in his dim sum shop. “The new owner told us she was going to start renovations right away and start renting it out.”
Liu worried aloud that if the water damage was bad enough, the house might need to be torn down.
“It’s got a lot of character,” he lamented.
Here we have an abandoned house, literally rotting away. As for where the water is coming from, it’s a mystery.
LOUIS LAPPREND, standing in front of the derelict house on Keefer Street