This was the home a 60-year-old Penticton resident lived in until the City of Penticton sold it out from under her, for less than half its value, just to collect $10,000 in unpaid taxes.

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The sister of a Penticton woman turfed out of her home over a $10,000 unpaid tax bill describes the City's behaviour as "obscene" and says its failure to act has cost her sister her entire livelihood.

"All it would have taken was one phone call," the sister told iNFOnews.ca.

However, the City of Penticton never alerted the authorities that a vulnerable 60-year-old woman was about to lose her home over a relatively small unpaid tax bill.

"The city council's job is to look after the citizens, and this went actually the opposite way, it cost a citizen her entire livelihood," she said.

She's now fighting for the system to be changed.

"The city council has to somehow educate the staff... and make it their obligation to do the right thing," she said.

She's also asking for the law to be changed, pointing out that, "It could happen to any of us."

READ MORE: City of Penticton sells vulnerable woman's home over $10K unpaid tax bill

The situation was laid out in a scathing Ombudsperson report over the City's handling and lack of action in the case.

The Ombudsperson found the entire process "unfair" and that the city made a multitude of mistakes when it used provincial legislation to force the sale of the home to cover $10,000 in unpaid property taxes. The home was valued at roughly $420,000 but was sold for less than half that price through the tax sale — all because the woman lacked the capacity, but not the finances, to pay her bills.

The report uses the pseudonym Ms. Wilson, for the Penticton woman who lost her home, and refers to her sister as Ms. Allen. iNFOnews.ca has agreed to use the same pseudonyms to protect Wilson's identity. Allen is protective of her sister's privacy and doesn't want to go into details about her disability.

Allen said she only became aware of the situation when she told her sister she was coming to stay for Thanksgiving.

Wilson then relayed the story to Allen.

"The police and the buyer turned up at the door and said 'get out', they gave her just that afternoon... to pack up what she could and her cat and get out," Allen said.

Allen said the new owner had arranged to have a moving company take the contents of the house to the dump. Luckily, the moving company wasn't comfortable with it, and the family heirlooms, photos, and all of her sister's possessions were saved.

On hearing the news, Allen then headed from her home at the coast to Penticton.

"I went straight to City Hall and said 'what the heck have you guys done?' and they were not apologetic in the least," she said.

Allen says her sister was living independently since their mother died a few years earlier. She didn't realize the extent of her sister's disability meant she wasn't paying her tax bills.

While it may seem hard to fathom that the family wouldn't know about such a situation, Allen points out that individuals with such disabilities often won't admit it to themselves, let alone tell their family.

Allen said she offered to pay the $10,000 tax bill there and then at City Hall, but by then the home was sold and it was too late.

Allen is furious the City never contacted a member of the family or the authorities.

"Why didn't (City Hall) call us, why didn't (they) call my brother with the same last name, why didn't (they) make any effort whatsoever... it could have been paid overnight," she said.

She said the City hid behind confidentiality laws as its excuse for why the family wasn't called.

However, as laid out in the Ombudsperson report, the City had a duty to call Interior Health when they suspected something wasn't quite right.

The City's own numbers show that in 30 years and more than 150 properties involved in a tax auction, only two previously had ever been sold to a new owner.

The Ombudsperson says this should have been a big "red flag" something wasn't right.

However, the City made only one phone call to Wilson and didn't call Interior Health.

READ MORE: City of Penticton won't compensate vulnerable woman over forced sale of house

Numbers released by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs show that on average between 2015 and 2018, 285 residential properties were subject to sale at auction for delinquent taxes each year. Of these 285 properties only 86 were actually transferred to a new owner, as the law allows a one-year grace period and the vast majority of homeowners managed to keep their properties and sort out their tax debt.

Statistics supplied from other cities around the Okanagan show that while tax auctions do happen, homeowners always manage to keep their properties and sort out the debt.

Allen is angry that one phone call could have likely led to a completely different future for her sister.

She also questions why the City couldn't have looked at deferring the overdue taxes – like they do for seniors – or why they didn't put a lien on the house.

Instead, it forced a 60-year-old vulnerable woman out of her home.

Allen wants the law to be changed.

"Educate all of your staff and inform them that they are allowed to call the specific health agencies when they think that something is going to cost somebody... their livelihood," Allen said.

She'd also like to see the province change the law to protect people in similar situations.

"We need to inspire people to take some sort of action," she said. "I don't know whether a million phone calls to the city would change anything, but... there's an election coming up in 2022," she said.

Following the sale of the house, Wilson went to live in a care home. Allen describes it as "absolutely wonderful."

However, with the home sold for significantly less than it was worth, the money to pay for the care home will run out next year.

"Who's going to pay for the care home going forward?" Allen asks. "It's up to the rest of us, and the taxpayer to subsidize everything going forward.

"We'll do what we have to do, we have to look after her," she said.

One of the Ombudsperson's recommendations was for the City of Penticton to pay back half the equity lost in the sale to the tune of $140,922.

"That would certainly be better than nothing," Allen said.

The City refused to pay back a penny.

While the Ombudsperson's report is highly critical of the City's actions, The Vancouver Sun reported that a leaked memo from the City of Penticton chief administrative officer Donny van Dyk praised city staff for its handling of the case.

"I believe the conduct of our city staff was beyond what was reasonable and what was required by law," van Dyk says in the memo.

Allen, along with the Ombudsperson of B.C., sees it as anything but reasonable.

In the meantime, the person who bought the home in the tax sale, Terry Pellatt, made a handsome profit on the house.

In September 2018, Pellatt purchased the house for roughly $150,000 when it was valued at $420,000. She flipped it in June 2020 for $498,000.

Pellatt also sold another house in Penticton for just shy of $1 million before moving to Calgary.

City of Penticton records shows that Pellatt purchased properties at auction each year from 2016 to 2019, although the sales fell through as the homeowners organized their debt and didn't lose their homes.

Allen wants to see real change.

"(The City of Penticton) have to get their butt in gear, educate their staff, and change the laws to protect all of us," she said.

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