“House of Horror” – Brampton

A north Brampton neighbourhood has been fighting with the city and an insurance company for three years. Why? Because a burned-out house on their street was left abandoned, decreasing their property values and creating an eyesore. Finally, they called Consumer SOS and in a few weeks the house was sold.

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Residents of the north Brampton neighbourhood not only have to look at it every day, but according to one neighbour it’s unpleasant and it smells.

“I can smell it in my house when the wind blows my way.”

It’s surprising to learn of such an eyesore right in the middle of an upscale north Brampton neighbourhood.

The boarded-up hulk is now home to raccoons and visiting teenagers who use the yard as a place to party.

Linda Langille lives next door and from her deck she gets a perfect view of the less-than-perfect backyard.

“We were thinking of retiring soon. I now don’t know how we can with this monstrosity beside us.”

Bob Currie and his wife live on the other side of the abandoned house. They’ve been trying to sell their own home, but can’t.

“You cannot sell it for the value that we have in it. That’s wrong.”

Norm Kernander, a neighbour and real estate agent, shares his thoughts on the issue. “If someone were to try and sell their house today I’d say hold off.”

Neighbours here have been patient for a long time, forced to live beside the burned-out eyesore not for a few months, but for three full years.

“Everything was a runaround to us,” says one neighbour.

The neighbourhood complained to Pilot Insurance, which had a policy on the house, they went to court to get the yard maintained, and they begged the city of Brampton to do something such as tearing it down over safety concerns.

Cliff Sherman of the City of Brampton did not see a problem with the house. “The house is secured, not at risk, it is safe.”

After so much waiting and getting no satisfaction, the neighbours had enough. They called Consumer SOS.

“No one has taken an interest, until now,” says one neighbour. “I called you because we can’t get help from anyone else.”

There were pleas of “Help! We need help!” coming from the neighbourhood.

As it turns out, the original owner abandoned the property and the insurance company has been in no hurry to spend money to fix the mess. But two days after we called Pilot Insurance’s parent company, Aviva, they told us the house would soon be put up for sale.

And put up for sale, it immediately was.

“I don’t think [the] neighbours should have gone through all this to get a problem rectified that should have been dealt with year number one,” one neighbour says.

And a few weeks later, the neighbourhood saw the sign they were looking for: a sold sign.

“It took a long time. Everybody was really nice through the whole process. But it took a real kick to get things done,” says a relieved Bob Currie.