Members of the strata council for a south Okanagan condo complex that was vacated in 2013 said they’re doing the best they can to get all of the owners back in their homes.
Linda Gergely and Stuart Syme were elected to sit on strata council but they’re also among the 60 residents who were advised to leave the complex three years ago.
An engineering report, which they paid for, concluded damage from a 2011 earthquake compromised the building’s safety.
“We opened an insurance claim. We had no idea at that time, in April of 2013, the extent of the damage or the cause, we just knew there was something, according to the engineer, to investigate,” Syme said.
That’s where the nightmare started to drag on.
“Four different engineers were sent by the insurance company and we had to wait for all of the reports to be done,” Gergely said.
The engineers reports show that it couldn’t be verified that the damage was seismic and the insurance claim was denied.
One report suggests that the damage could have been caused over time due to poor construction back in the late 1980’s.
The strata council took legal action against the insurance companies.
In the meantime, one local developer, said the owners could have moved back in long ago.
“These people could be back in their building today,” David Perehudoff with a company called Canadian Wetlands said.
But having been burned before by an engineering report’s claims, the strata council isn’t convinced it’s safe to move back in.
WATCH BELOW: Engineering reports show vacated Oliver residents could have moved back home
So instead, they’re putting out a request for proposals, one of which has come from Canadian Wetlands and Syme said another is in the works from longtime Okanagan company Greyback Construction.
They’re hoping to put an end to the three year battle, that’s left those like Syme and Gergely paying strata and legal fees.
“My wife’s dying and we need to spend time together… we need to get out of this, we need to see an end to this,” Syme said.