The owners of a North Okanagan property say they were offered nearly $600,000 by the town before it eventually became the site of a drug lab.
Image Credit: Township of Spallumcheen
July 28, 2025 - 7:00 PM
The Township of Spallumcheen tried to buy a North Okanagan property months before police found a drug lab. Now the province wants to seize it.
That's according to the owners of the 21-hectare property, who filed a lawsuit against their own tenant earlier this year. They claim he was illegally logging on and near the property, then sub-leased the garage to a "third party" as a clandestine drug lab.
In November 2023, the township offered to buy the 1615 Reservoir Road property for $557,000, just more than half its assessed value, after months of bylaw enforcement and a logging investigation. It was sometime in 2024 when the drug lab operation started, according to the Notice of Claim.
The offer included a condition that the tenant, Terrence Chaplin, should be evicted. The owners were "unable to comply" and the deal fell through, according to their claim.
The province's Civil Forfeiture Office now wants to seize the property after police stumbled upon the drug lab in early 2025, subsequently searching the property, according to court documents filed last month.
The town has been taking action against the property since May 2023 due to construction without permits, which included garages, storage and lunchrooms for workers on the property, according to the owners.
Despite stop work orders, logging work continued on the property and the owners claim remediation on the property would cost around $100,000. That's not including costs to RCMP, the fire department and for bylaw fines.
In late 2023, the owners were notified the Ministry of Forests seized timber from the property, with Chaplin accused of logging both on the property and on neighbouring Crown land, according to the claim.
The town filed its own lawsuit in December 2023, marking the first in the overlapping series of civil claims involving the Spallumcheen property.
It didn't mention the offer to buy it from owners Gus Adams, Mary Ellen Medema and Anne Adams, and the township did not immediately respond when asked about the offer.
“We take these matters very seriously,” Spallumcheen mayor Christine Fraser said in a July 28 news release. “Our priority is to ensure that all properties within our jurisdiction comply with municipal regulations and contribute to the well-being of our community.”
Chaplin hasn't lived on the property since April 30, but the owners have not mentioned in court filings whether they attempted to evict Chaplin.
When police searched the property in February, five people were detained, while chemicals and drug-making equipment were seized, but it's not clear whether anyone has been charged.
Vernon North Okanagan RCMP announced the search and seizure on the property the next day, which came six months after the largest and most sophisticated drug lab was dismantled in Falkland.
They only found the lab because of an unrelated arrest warrant for Chaplin, who has since been handed a 12-month probation order for uttering threats and firearm possession without a licence, according to criminal court records.
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