The owners of a Vancouver apartment building demolished by the city in August after two major fires in little more than a year have been fined for failing to secure the site after the first fire.
Fu Ren and his wife Feng Yan, who own the property at 414 East 10th Avenue, were found guilty of a trio of bylaw offences following a trial on Dec. 13 and fined a total of $37,500.
Ren and Yan were convicted of failing to comply with a September 2023 fire order to keep the building secure from squatters, maintain a 24-hour fire watch and remove any fire hazards.
Ren received a $7,500 fine for each offence while Yan was fined $5,000 per offence.
The city ordered the Mount Pleasant building be torn down due to its condition following the second fire.
The property, which was recently assessed at $8,025,700, is now listed for $18 million and billed as a “vacant Broadway Plan site” with the potential for development up to 20 storeys.
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“You have a landlord here who clearly did not care about his obligations as a landlord, his obligations to his tenants or the life, safety or health of the people who lived in the building,” neighbour Rob Bucci told Global News.
After flames tore through the former apartments in July 2023, displacing 70 tenants, Bucci said there were multiple smaller fires as squatters sought refuge at the site – before what was left of the burnt building was gutted by a second major fire this past August.
Green Coun. Pete Fry said the fines issued to Ren and his wife likely won’t cover the costs of emergency services for displaced tenants or the tear down.
“This is a serial slumlord who is managing to (flout) the rules, get slapped on the wrist with paltry fines,” Fry said.
“Now he’s set to profit quite handsomely off the sale of this property.”
Fry believes the City of Vancouver is currently rewarding negligence and needs to look at adding teeth to its bylaws.
“When we go in with a fire order, we expect it to be completed – not like maybe later, sometime, or I’ll just pay a fine and walk away,” Fry said.
“It’s outrageous to me and I think we need to do better.”
In Feb., Ren was fined $4,500 after he pleaded guilty to six of 20 fire code violations from a 2022 inspection of the now-razed building.
“The city should be making an example of landlords like this, who sit on these properties and don’t take any care to maintain them properly for people,” Bucci said.
“It brings down the entire neighbourhood.”
The City of Vancouver confirmed the property owners have been billed for the Aug. 16 demolition.
When asked how much the invoice was and whether the city had received payment, Global News was told those details will require a Freedom of Information request.
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