EDMONTON – The owners of Fort McMurray’s Penhorwood condominiums are trying to find ways to continue their legal battle against the developer, and the buildings are scheduled to be demolished.
In 2011, tenants and owners were forced out of the seven condo buildings when they were deemed unsafe to live in because of structural safety concerns.
Three-hundred people were forced out of their homes, and given just 15 minutes to get back inside and collect whatever belongings they could.
Since then, they have been working on filing a $60 million lawsuit against more than 28 defendants, including construction companies and the developer.
“The lawsuit has been continuing at its rather slow and rather complex pace,” explains Christine Burton, the Penhorwood condo board chair.
“We recently made an application to try to get some money that we had to pay into court out, in order to continue our litigation. Of course, because of the evacuation and the cost of stabilizing the building so that we could go in and get people’s furniture and personal effects out has pretty much depleted our funds.”
That application to have some of their cost securities from the lawsuit returned, Burton says, was not successful.
“We’re looking for ways to continue the litigation.”
She says, despite stabilizing the building after the evacuation order, the buildings have shifted further, causing even more damage.
“The photos… are a pretty shocking sight,” Burton says.
“We had our inspectors going through the buildings two weekends ago, and because of the ongoing shifting of the buildings, the roof drains have now split away from the seals, and for – as far as we can tell, about the last year and a half – water has been pouring down inside these buildings. So now the interior of these buildings are covered with black and white mould and we’ve even got grass and mushrooms growing in the carpets.”
“It’s pretty horrible,” she adds.
“We had stabilized the buildings, and yet, they’re still moving and shifting because of the structural defects in the construction of these buildings… they’re a total mess and a significant risk to public safety,” she stresses.
While the condo board continues to try to find another way to continue litigation – including borrowing money – Burton says the judge thought the condo owners should pay for the lawsuit.
“Our argument back of course was that our owners are absolutely topped out after two years of being evacuated from their homes and having to pay double rent on top of their mortgages, they have no more money.”
She says the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo has stepped in to assist.
“We have been receiving a great deal of help from the municipality, who’ve assisted with a number of different things.”
She says the municipality has helped with moving abandoned cars off the site, and a local company volunteered to remove all trees and donate them to a local college.
Burton feels the province’s hands are tied.
“Because it’s private property and it’s under a civil lawsuit right now, there’s not much the province can do. They’ve certainly been reviewing the condo legislation and we’ve had some input on that.”
They were served with a demolition order by the municipality, and condo owners were told to tear the buildings down by September 20. They did not have the funds to do so, so Burton says the municipality will demolish the buildings.
A spokesperson for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo sent Global News this statement:
“The order stated that demolition must begin by August 20th. That did not occur, so our municipal safety code officials will determine the best course of action to be taken. We cannot at this time advise of a timeline in relation to that.”
Condo owners are looking at possibly selling the land the condo sits on.
“We have had a lot of interest in the land from numerous developers,” Burton says, adding there is a complication since there are “quite a lot of mortgages registered against the land.”
The owners have retained a condo expert to help them look at how they can sell the land and get some money back to the residents.
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