OLIVER, B.C. – Bharbara Klassen is heartbroken her retirement income is locked away in a uninhabitable condo.
“This is tough luck,” said Klassen, one of 60 residents who were forced to leave the Park Place condos in the south Okanagan town in 2013.
Cracks and shifting beams were diagnosed as significant structural issues that left residents believing they had to leave.
The instability began to surface after a small earthquake south of the border in Washington State in 2011, according to residents.
Since residents left, the building remains vacant with the strata still looking into remedies for millions of dollars in repairs.
Insurance has denied the building earthquake coverage for the damage, leaving the residents on the hook for the huge repair bill.
“I have given up hope,” said the Okanagan senior, who has bounced from living with family to renting her own apartment. Klassen was mortgage free at Park Place.
All the residents continue to pay $146/month strata fees as well as legal costs incurred along the way.
While some condo owners have since died, some are now in care homes, said Klassen.
A new engineers report is due to be delivered to Klassen this weekend, but any understanding of the technical terms is difficult.
“Nobody understands it, because it is so technical that nobody has a clue what it’s all about,” she told Global Okanagan Friday.
Klassen originally didn’t want to leave, but said the strata president told her she would be arrested by RCMP if she didn’t vacate on time.
Having agreed finally to leave her home, she now wonders if the residents should have acquired a second opinion on the true structural condition of the building.
“We have been like a herd of sheep.”
Klassen has vowed to never move back. If repairs are completed, she will attempt to sell the condo at Park Place, “if anybody wants to buy it, which is questionable”.
The senior said she is trying to move on to avoid letting the stress further impact her own health.
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