A Tsawwassen single mom feels under the gun by Delta's stringent secondary suite regulations.
Renting a suite on 16A Avenue for the past several months, Christina Shellard has been told by her landlord she has to vacate following a bylaw inspection where deficiencies were found with the unit.
Having moved there with her 10-year-old daughter Sienna, Shellard says she's frustrated because they've already settled into the neighbourhood and her daughter is going to a nearby Francophone school.
"I lived in Richmond for five years and wanted to move back here. I found this place on Craigslist but now they're saying the ceiling is too low in the bedroom and they have to increase the size of the windows. I would like to stay here but need the time to at least find somewhere else. It's impossible for this price range."
Shellard's unit is just one of many Delta staff have found, either through online advertisements, complaints or other means, in an ongoing, proactive approach to dealing with non-compliant suites.
"When it comes to whether family is in the house or someone renting it out, bylaws proactively enforces. If you're renting it out, if we get complaints from neighbours or we see advertisements through ads, if we see an MLS listing that says there's a suite in it, we go after those ones. We have a unit and that's what they do," explained civic bylaws manager Hugh Davies in a recent interview.
Davies said Delta's secondary suite program, which launched in 2010 to legalize units and make them compliant with health and safety regulations, has been successful. "We're now getting in the process where we are visiting those ones with occupancy permits and double checking to make sure that they are following the rules. That includes making sure they have the parking space for the tenants. We're doing that on an annual basis and have a separate unit that goes out and checks on secondary suites," he said.
"The bylaw unit from what it was in the past to what it is today is quite different. We're much more proactive. Our job is to keep the standards up in the neighborhood and we get a lot of people asking us to help."
As of July of this year, homeowners who wanted to apply to legalize their secondary suites can no longer do it under that suite program, which has been phased out.
All applications to legalize suites now have to undergo a different permitting process through the community planning and development department.
"So the program ran its course. We got pretty close to 3,000 suites identified. So everyone has had a few years to get them done and that was coming to a natural end because the number of applications was dropping down."
