When it comes to underground oil tanks, what you don鈥檛 know has the potential to cause you severe financial pain. sa国际传媒 Supreme Court Justice Randall Wong ruled Thursday that current and former owners of a Saanich home with a leaking oil tank must pay the cost of cleaning up their neighbour鈥檚 property at a cost of between $60,000 and $120,000.
In March 2012, oil was discovered leaking into the Gorge Waterway from a storm drain at the bottom of Adelaide Avenue. Saanich engineers found oil coming through drainage tile on Gina Dolinsky鈥檚 property at 2837 Adelaide Ave. Dolinsky hired an environmental consultant who determined the oil was coming from a neighbouring property but couldn鈥檛 pinpoint the source.
In December 2012, more oil flowed onto her property and into the waterway. The Environment Ministry stepped in and found that the oil was coming from a corroded underground tank on the property at 2839 Adelaide Ave.
The tank, which contained 80 kilograms of sludge and 1,900 litres of oily water, was removed, as was nearly 13 tonnes of contaminated soil from around the tank. Gavin Edwards and Donna Wingfield, the current owners of 2839 Adelaide Ave., hired an environmental company to remove contaminated soil from their property and Dolinsky鈥檚 property.
Dolinsky turned to the courts to recover her costs. Last week, Wong ruled that Edwards and Wingfield must pay 15 per cent of the costs. Roberto and Crystal Rael, who bought the property in March 2012 and resold it a few months later after renovations, were ordered to pay 35 per cent. Balwinder Kaur Bal, who had owned the property from 1968 to 2002, was ordered to pay 50 per cent of the costs.
Bal had the old oil tank decommissioned in 1981 after the house was converted to electric heat. Her oil-supply company drained the tank and disconnected it from the house.
It鈥檚 the stuff homeowners鈥� nightmares are made of. To think that you can be held responsible for damages years after you have sold a property, even if you took the right steps to prevent damage, is downright frightening.
If a house in the Greater Victoria area was built before the 1960s, the chances are good that there was once 鈥� and still might be 鈥� an underground oil tank on the property. The property owner is liable for all damages if such a tank leaks, even if she or he was unaware of the tank鈥檚 existence.
And as Wong鈥檚 ruling illustrates, that liability potentially extends to the whole chain of property ownership.
The Victoria Real Estate Board constantly reminds agents to advise their clients of the dangers of hidden oil tanks, and urges that properties be properly inspected before changing hands.
Many municipalities require that unused oil tanks be removed or rendered inert 鈥� which usually involves filling them with sand. But removal appears to be the safest course, and does not cost substantially more. That cost could be from several hundred to a few thousand dollars, not a large amount, considering that cleaning up after an extensive oil leak could total more than the value of the property where the tank is located.
It would strike most people as unfair that a person can be held liable for a situation he or she had no knowledge of, even years after the fact. The Adelaide Avenue situation seems especially unfair, given that the person who owned the property from 2002 to 2012 couldn鈥檛 be found, and so escaped having to share in the costs.
It鈥檚 a clich茅 that life is often unfair, but true nonetheless. If you own a 50- or 60-year-old house, don鈥檛 go looking for fairness; rather, go looking for old oil tanks.
