HOUSING CRISIS: Kamloops senior loses battle against city housing regulations
A Kamloops homeowner is living on the financial brink after losing a battle to live in a suite he built in a garage on his property.
Robert DeNeefe moved into the suite he built in his garage in 2018 and moved a tenant into his main home at a cheap rental rate in order to help both of them make ends meet.
The arrangement worked for several years until someone called the bylaw department to complain.
“There are numerous illegal suites and all it takes is someone to complain,” DeNeefe said. “While we’re minding our own business someone says ‘I don’t like that guy.'”
He's living on a fixed income far below the poverty line and admitted he didn’t get the proper permits ahead of building the suite, but was expecting the city to work with him more productively given the current housing crisis.
“I was stupid, I didn’t know,” DeNeefe said. “I was under the impression if I got it up to code it would be fine. I found it extremely difficult to work with the city, there has been a continuous series of errors here.”
In January 2022, bylaw officers visited Deneefe’s property in response to the complaint. His garage is illegal to use for living in because it is too close to the property line. It also required some upgrades to meet BC Building Code requirements.
DeNeefe said he applied with the city planning department to get a variance on the required distance from the garage suite to the property line.
“At the time I was told they would consider amending the variance but gave me a list of things to fix,” he said. “I hired an engineer at great expense. I agreed to meet everything on the list to meet the BC building code, the engineer said there is nothing here that can’t be fixed.”
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DeNeefe said while he was working to adhere to the building recommendations, the communications between himself and the planning department were delayed because of an email mix-up on the city’s end.
He received an email from the planning department in August telling him not to do any more improvements to the property until the application was passed through council.
In December, the application for the variance was rejected by the city and Deneefe had to get rid of his tenant and has been receiving fines ever since.
“This person had some issues and I was giving him very cheap rent to help,” he said. “That person had to go buy an old motorhome and move out to the outskirts of Kamloops. It wasn’t fair to him.”
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Deneefe’s property is zoned as a single-family residential. There is an illegal secondary suite located in the basement that was built without a permit before DeNeefe took possession.
The suite he built out of the garage is referred to as a garden suite, which is a residential dwelling that is an accessory to a main house on a property and is usually located in the backyard or garden area. The single-family zoning permits a garden suite but not both a garden suite and secondary suite.
DeNeefe wanted to keep the garage suite and remove the secondary suite inside his house to allow for renters.
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The detached garage was constructed in 1993. The building permit for the garage was never finalized and requires the removal of a driveway.
DeNeefe is required to decommission the garage suite — or it will be done for him at his cost — remove a driveway, and apply for a building permit to legalize the secondary suite in the basement or it will be decommissioned.
“I understand there are bylaws and building codes there for a reason to protect people, the inhabitants and future buyers. But there is a difference between code and safety. I’m allowed to sleep in my car in my garage, I can live in a box on the river but I can’t live in a suite on my property.”
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In 2023, DeNeefe received numerous tickets from the city and was later charged $300 in fines in provincial court for not complying with the orders.
“We went to court for three-and-a-half days, the city had five charges on me with each carrying (fines of) up to $1,000,” he said. “The judge dismissed two of them because they were too close to being the same and then gave me the minimum fine of $100 for the other three.”
Living on a low fixed income and without a secondary income from a renter, the senior is currently unclear on what his next steps are.
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DeNeefe said housing regulations need to be changed while people are struggling financially and need affordable housing.
“The terrible tragedy is that it’s very difficult for young people and seniors to live,” he said. “Now I have to tear down a perfectly good dwelling. There are street people and homeless people because of these kinds of circumstances and I might be next."
A request for comment from the city's planning department was not returned in time for publication.
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