Fort Saskatchewan condo owners on hook for repairs to structurally unsound building
Global News (abridged)
By Sarah Komadina
18 August 2020
It’s been a long road for Riverview Estates condo owners in Fort Saskatchewan.
In August 2019, one of the two buildings had to be evacuated after engineers found it to be structurally unsound.
A year later, a majority of condo owners voted to do the repairs, which is expected to cost $4 million.
After multiple requests from the condo board, the insurance company finally agreed to cover $1.5 million. Any outstanding costs will fall on all 87 owners from both buildings.
Birgit Blizzard owns two condos in the occupied building. Blizzard said the financial burden is tough but it’s important to get people back into their homes.
“I feel bad. For some people, this is their retirement home. Now, they still have to pay a mortgage and then rent to live elsewhere,” Blizzard said.
Blizzard is relieved insurance is covering some of the costs but said the whole sum should be covered.
Riverview Estates lawyer Hugh Willis said this is a hard situation for everyone to go through.
“I think this is incredibly difficult for every owner. Regardless of when a person purchased their unit, this is one of the most difficult catastrophes I’ve seen in my career. The financial circumstance [and] the financial consequence on all owners is devastating,” Willis said.
Willis said the board has a couple of options when it comes to borrowing money.
“[They] include borrowing money from an institution that will lend money to a condo corporation or alternatively a special levy. So there is ongoing discussion with lenders right now to try for a loan, and if that doesn’t come to fruition, perhaps a special levy or maybe a combination of both,” Willis said.
“Unfortunately, not all of the answers are positive. We’re not going to get 100 per cent insurance on here. We are not going to get 100 per cent contribution from other parties who may or may not have been responsible for this occurring.”
Willis said the board still has time to take legal action against responsible parties.
There is no set date on when repairs to the building will start but Willis said it will be a matter of months, not years.
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It is rare to have a whole condo building declared structurally unsound but it does happen. This is the latest one. It has 44 suites.
There are two classes of owners here. Those who live in the “safe” building remained in their homes but they are responsible to help pay for the rebuild of the evacuated building.
Then there are the owners who had to evacuate their homes, pay their condo costs and mortgages plus pay to live elsewhere until they can move back in.
—H. Marshall
I think that someone should be accountable for this. Where is the government to hold the builders accountable? Was this not project not approved and was there no inspection? Someone should be sued in my view.
This is just crazy!
—Elisa