Michael Stevulak has become the “nice watchdog” of an abandoned, derelict property beside the Victoria Golf Course.
Six years after fire ripped through the second and third floors of the once-elegant Beach Drive home, the property is attracting trespassers.
The roof of the old house is covered with tarps, and its doors and windows are boarded up. Two Mercedes Benz and a Rolls Royce parked in the buckling driveway are a real draw for teenagers.
“And everybody walks by the beach asking: ‘When is something going to be done?’ ” said Stevulak, who lives next door.
He’s hoping the District of Oak Bay will have an answer for him soon.
Last month, Stevulak asked council to develop a bylaw for dealing with derelict properties.
“The home run for me would be a bylaw so if there is a safety, fire, health or environmental concern, the owner could be asked to act on it,” said Stevulak. “Ultimately, you have to say if it’s not brought up to standard, the municipality will fix it at the owner’s expense and if the owner fails to pay, it could be considered arrears property tax.”
At its March 27 council meeting, council directed staff to report on options for preparing a bylaw addressing property maintenance.
Mayor Kevin Murdoch said council has asked staff for information on how it could approach the issue and what other jurisdictions do. The number of abandoned or derelict properties in Oak Bay is not large, he said.
Fire crews who battled the July 1, 2017 blaze at the home found an attic full of combustibles and the house full of old magazines.
“They just hosed the whole thing down and everything was left to mildew,” said Stevulak. “The house is pretty much beyond repair. There’s water damage, mold damage. It’s just way too far gone.”
Teenagers break into the property and vandalize the cars, said Stevulak. He said he files police reports because he’s worried about teenagers getting hurt inside the building.
“We are the nice watchdogs. We tell people it’s private property.”
Recently, he saw someone rummaging under a pile of twigs in the backyard. The person told them they were geocaching, burying treasure on the property.
“So now you have a geocacher who wants to hide something in this backyard so all the geocachers can start traipsing through.”
The City of Victoria has property maintenance and abandoned properties bylaws.
The city can order owners to clean up and secure their properties. If they fail to comply, the city can do the work itself and bill the owner. But the city can’t force the destruction or the sale of a house just because it’s unsightly.
Demolition orders are saved for the most extreme cases where voluntary compliance hasn’t worked and there’s a threat to safety.
The District of Saanich also has bylaws to address derelict or abandoned properties. These include the unsightly premises bylaw, the minimum property maintenance standards bylaw, and fire prevention and life safety bylaw, said Dean Ridley, Saanich’s acting manager of bylaw and licensing services.
However, if a building is structurally sound and securely boarded up and the property is not unsightly, if the garbage has been taken away and the grass and vegetation are regularly cut, the district does not have the ability to have the house demolished just because it’s not a thing of beauty, said Ridley.
“The only way we can do remedial action is if building officials find that this building is going to fall over.”
Ridley said the bylaws can help bring properties and buildings into compliance to ensure public safety and meet community standards as well.
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