This house at 3054 Springfield Rd. was hit with six tickets by a new property action team in Kelowna.
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August 07, 2020 - 4:45 PM
Kelowna’s new property action team is picking its targets carefully and is ready to hand out significant fines for bad characters in the city's neighbourhoods.
The Property Standards Compliance Team was formed in June so city bylaw, the fire department, RCMP and other agencies can crack down on troublesome properties.
“The team is working on a matrix to help it prioritize decision making, based on risks including fire risk, safety of persons, repeated complaints received by all or some agencies,” states a City of Kelowna email to iNFOnews.ca.
Its first – and to date only – foray was on July 24 to a property at 3054 Springfield Rd. where six tickets totalling more than $2,500 were handed out, essentially for illegal suites.
These included an illegally occupied bedroom in the furnace room, an illegally occupied utility trailer and shed, and an illegal room in a carriage house attic constructed without a building permit. The illegal carriage house was discovered at the property in 2018.
READ MORE: Kelowna homeowner couldn't hide illegal carriage house
“There are a number of other properties on the team’s radar,” the email stated. ”More visits are planned for the weeks ahead.”
The goal of the new team is to respond to repeated complaints about troublesome properties and to focus on the owners, not the tenants who may be the actual source of the problem, a City of Kelowna news release states.
“We receive calls from concerned neighbours throughout the year, as do the RCMP, about properties that are causing repeated disturbances to the neighbourhood,” David Gazley, the city’s bylaw services manager said in the news release.
“We have always collaborated with RCMP and others on property complaints, but this team takes a more coordinated and proactive approach to establish priorities and to bring the right people into the residence to assess illegal and unsafe conditions,” Gazley said.
The team is not designed, for example, to respond to complaints about activities in and around supportive housing projects, since they have what are called Community Action Committees set up to address concerns in the neighbourhood, the City said.
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