Home sweet home
Former Cape Bretoner upset to learn family house he owns will be demolished
NEW VICTORIA — A former Cape Breton man has learned he is going to lose his beloved family home to a wrecking ball.
Paul Brown, 51, now living in Victoria, B.C., recently opened a story on the Cape Breton Post website on unsafe structures in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
One of three photos of houses slated for demolition was 15 Cameron's Lane in New Victoria. Paul and his brother Michael inherited the house after their father's death in 1998.
“I was gutted,” he said. “This has just rocked me to the core. There's so much love, so much pride in this house.”
THE FAMILY HOME
The Cameron's Lane house was built in 1976 on family farmland owned by Paul Brown's grandparents Alice and Hilary Brown.
Paul said in 1974 his grandmother told his father Brud Brown she would subdivide the property so they could live there.
Six years old at the time, Paul said his family — including mother Pauline and brother Michael— moved into a basement his father built on the land.
For two years they lived in the basement of an unfinished house.
“He stockpiled timber when it was on sale, plywood when it was on sale and windows when on sale,” he said.
“He'd covered them on our property with tarps. My father didn't want a mortgage, he wanted a house he owned.”
HANGING ON TO HERITAGE
Sadly, Paul's mother died in 1984 when he was 15 years old, and his father died 14 years later.
Paul said they did not want to sell the house due to their emotional attachment to it. But since he and his brother both lived away, they decided to rent it to someone handy who would maintain it in exchange for low rent.
In 2002 a neighbouring family moved into the house. In 2008 at age 45, the man died of a heart attack. His wife remained in the house with their three children but suffered hardships, ending up owing $8,000 in back rent.
Meanwhile, Paul, who lived in Ontario at the time, said family contacted him in 2012 after seeing the house up for municipal tax sale – $8,000 in arrears. He was shocked to learn the arrangement to have the estate executor look after the taxes owing on the property had not been followed.
Paul paid the back taxes, evicted the tenant, and took her to court, receiving a judgment for the rent owed to him and his brother.
The house was rundown at this point and sat derelict. Heartbroken over the course of events, a decision was made to sell it.
A cousin who knew the history of the house, and was excited to live there, made an offer.
“Although it was in rough shape, it had good bones,” Paul said. “Over the next six months she began stockpiling things to put in the house.”
However, the sale process was halted by controversy.
THE DEED
When Paul's grandmother Alice Brown died in 1988, the family farm was left to her son George Brown.
Two years later, a property survey indicated the land was not severed properly back in the 1970s as was Alice's wish. The survey included the land owned by Paul's father, Brud.
Brud's car garage straddled the property line. A pieshaped piece was given to the farm estate in exchange for another one to make Paul's family property more rectangular in shape.
George died on May 21, 2012, leaving the farm estate to his second wife Shirley and his two sons.
While trying to complete
the sale in July 2012 of the Cameron's Lane home owned by Paul, he found out that even though the survey defined the properties – where the land had not been severed properly years earlier – his aunt Shirley and two cousins remained on the deed for his father's land.
Paul said his cousins signed a quit claim document so he could sell his property but said Shirley had issues with the property line from the 1990 survey.
He said he offered to move it anywhere she wanted.
“The house was just sitting there vacant and that was driving me nuts,” he said.
The original surveyor offered to walk the property line to show Shirley what her husband George had agreed to when severing the property from the family farm.
“I just wanted someone to live in my mom and dad's legacy,” he said, with his voice cracking.
“I sat at her house and said, ‘My mother and father didn't build this house for it to sit empty.'”
The cousin who made the purchase offer, who wished not to be identified, waited four years for the deed to be straightened out before finally giving up.
“This defeat also cost me thousands of dollars,” she said. “I had ordered and paid for materials for the renovations.”
Paul provided legal correspondence showing efforts to try to rectify the situation in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
After paying $17,000 in taxes over the years that left him distraught, three years ago Paul stopped paying them thinking he could eventually buy the property back at a tax sale.
“I can own the house and pay taxes on it, but I can't sell it," he said. "Something is wrong with that."
FIXING THE DEED
Shirley Brown said she didn't realize the Cameron's Lane house had five names on the deed until 2012 when the municipality was trying to contact Paul because of the taxes owed on it.
Shirley said years ago Paul's father wanted to add a “slither” of land from the family farm to fix a problem with his driveway but it was never made legal.
The complicated land ownership debate was finally straightened out five years ago and Paul's lawyer was informed, according to Shirley.
“It cost me a lot of money,” she said.
Stating she signed the papers, her lawyer sent messages to Paul's lawyer and she even called him herself but never heard back.
The Cape Breton Post contacted Paul Brown's lawyer, Neil McMahon, but he has not responded to the Post's inquiry on the property dispute.
Recently discovering the house is up for demolition, Shirley said she was devastated
to hear it.
“I thought this couldn't be happening. I didn't think it had deteriorated that badly,” she said.
Her hope is that Paul will call her.
“I straightened it out,” she said. “AIl I need is his signature and the house is his."
THE DEMOLITION LIST
There are 369 houses on the Cape Breton Regional Municipality's list of unsafe properties and the 'worst of the worst' are selected each demolition round.
Paul Burt, manager of building, planning and licensing bylaws, said the Cameron's
Lane house is on that list.
“There are holes in the roof, it's structurally unsound,” he said. “It has to come down.”
When a structure is deemed unsafe, the owner is given a notice of intent of demolition. Following the Municipal Government Act, a notice is posted on the house and a registered letter sent out. The owner has 30 days to appeal.
In this case, Burt said five names are on the deed so the registered letter was sent to the main contact's address on file in Jacksonville, Fla.
Paul Brown lived in Florida from 2015 until 2019, when he moved to Victoria, B.C.
Burt said they do not spend thousands of dollars trying to find a homeowner. The municipality uses official information on file from Nova Scotia property online and the registry of deeds.
There are 17 houses slated for demolition in this round. At some point after the May 19 appeal hearing, a notice was posted on each of the properties. Thirty days from the time of posting, a tender goes out for demolition.
“Once the tender is awarded, they would start getting them down ASAP,” Burt said.
“If Mr. Brown wants to come up with a solid plan and come forward and get working on things, he can figure out the ownership later. Someone needs to get a permit and start working on things before the 30 days when this house was posted, are up.”
The Cameron's Lane home was posted for demolition on May 25, meaning it will reach the 30-day mark today.
OUT OF HOPE
Paul's memories are endless and his tone reciting them sound sad.
"Imagine knowing where to peel a piece of paneling that has family notes to one another plus lines of height," he said.
After 10 years of trying to save his beloved family home and weeks until it's demolished, he doesn't know where to turn.
“What can I do?” he asked. "I'm out more than $50,000 trying to save it."