Avery Shoaf was the host of Rust Valley Restorers on the History Channel.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/averyshoaf.com

A star of Rust Valley Restorers is suing his mom over a property in the Shuswap, and now they’re both getting sued by a real estate developer over the same lot.

Early in 2021, Avery Shoaf, one of the show’s hosts, filed a lawsuit against his mother, Helen Shoaf. In it, he claims to be entitled to a 50% stake in her property because he made “several significant improvements” on it since 1995.

“(Avery) made the improvements on reliance upon (Helen’s) often-repeated assurances that (Avery) would receive from (Helen) a 50% interest in the property,” according to his civil claim.

The property was tentatively sold, and should the deal finalize with all the money going to Helen, Avery is concerned he won’t be able to recover any of it, as his mom indicated she would be leaving Canada and taking her assets with her, the claim reads.

To prevent the property from getting sold before the lawsuit is settled, a certificate of pending litigation (CPL) was filed the day after Avery’s lawsuit.

In Helen’s response, she claims to have acquired the property without any contributions from Avery, and that she never agreed to transfer any interest in the property to him.

She denies that her son made “significant improvements” to the property. His work was not completed in “a good and workmanlike manner,” the response reads. “The items installed … have diminished, rather than enhanced, the fair market value of the property.”

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Avery never compensated his mom for his use of the property, according to the response, which says he further diminished the value of the property by using it to store older model vehicles, RVs and garbage.

It also alleges Avery collected rent from friends who were living on the property in Helen’s RVs, “which is due and payable to the defendant…”

Helen’s response was filed March 2021.

A Vancouver developer named Robert Kuhn is trying to purchase the property.

Kuhn and Helen, through her realtor, entered into negotiations and came up with a contract on Feb. 12, 2021.

The deal included a sale of the property for $2 million, which was to be free of tenants, trailers, scrap metal and garbage by May 15, 2021, according to Kuhn’s lawsuit against the Shoafs.

But as a result of the CPL imposed by Avery three days prior, the property cannot be sold until that’s dealt with.

READ MORE: iN VIDEO: 'Rust Valley Restorers' stars auctioning off more fixer-uppers in Shuswap

In order to try get the CPL cancelled, Kuhn filed a lawsuit against both Avery and Helen last week.

"The property is currently littered with various abandoned vehicles, trailers, RVs, scrap metal, and garbage," Kuhn's lawsuit alleges. "There also appears to be one or more unauthorized persons residing in the trailers/RVs on the property."

It alleges the mother and son “wrongfully cooperated” to use the CPL to prevent the sale, either to leverage Kuhn and his company into paying more, or to have them agree to cancel the sale altogether. Kuhn made the same allegations in an Abuse of Process Action claim earlier this year.

Kuhn's lawsuit also claims Helen notified him on July 26, 2021 that she changed her mind about selling the property and asked him to terminate the contract. However he responded, twice, to say he wanted to follow through with the purchase.

Furthermore, it says Avery confirmed that he thinks the property should be sold for more than the agreed upon price, adding that he’s in the process of obtaining a second appraisal of the property – and if the second appraisal shows a price below $2 million then he’ll try and prevent the sale from happening, unless it's at a higher price. 

BCassessment.ca pegs the value of the property at $1,472,600.

Under B.C.'s Land and Title Act, the CPL should be cancelled on two grounds, Kuhn’s lawsuit claims: Avery hasn’t taken any steps in the CPL action in over a year, and the CPL is likely to cause hardship to Kuhn.

The Shoafs have yet to respond to Kuhn’s lawsuit. None of the allegations in this story have been proven in court.

Squilax-Anglemont Road

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Google Street View

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