WATCH ABOVE: An Edmonton family is living in fear after a rental dispute went from cordial to threatening. Earlier this week, the landlord allegedly tore down part of the home while someone was inside. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON – An Edmonton woman and her two children are scrambling to find somewhere to live after the house she was living in was partially destroyed earlier this week following a rental dispute.
“We’re trying to find a place,” said Tiffany Routley. “It’s really hard. I don’t know what to say because I don’t have a lot of people to turn to here.”
Routley said things came to a head earlier this month after she missed her rent payment for June.
“I needed … until the end of the month but he wasn’t willing to do that,” Routley said of her landlord.
Routley said her landlord wanted her out of the home and when that didn’t happen he came and removed her front door.
This past Monday, she said he tore down the front wall of the house, located in the Sherbrooke neighbourhood. Routley’s children weren’t home, but her ex-boyfriend was inside at the time.
“If my ex wasn’t here to stop him my whole house would have been gone with everything inside,” she explained.
Marlene, who has asked that her last name not be published, lives in the area and saw the incident. She said a truck pulling a trailer and bobcat were at the property for less than 10 minutes “to come in and do their damage and run.”
“They parked in front of my house. Then they came and just crashed this and then they booked it, jumped back on the trailer hitch and off they went,” said Marlene.
According to the City of Edmonton’s landlord and tenant advisory board, a tenant must be given a 14-day eviction notice before a landlord can either take them to court or have them removed by a bailiff.
Routley says she was given no such notice. Global News confirmed no demolition or development permit had ever been issued for the property by the city.
Global News also contacted Routley’s landlord Jason Campbell over the phone, but he denied having any involvement with the home or family, only saying “No, I don’t.”
Routley has contacted Edmonton police about the incident.
She hoped to have her belongings moved out of the house by the end of the day Friday.
With files from Eric Szeto, Global News.
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