Winnipeg home still standing 19 months after city condemned it
'If it's not safe, why is it still standing?' Neighbours say house is source of vermin, want it torn down
People living on a quiet St. Boniface street want to know why a house condemned by the City of Winnipeg nearly two years ago because of hoarding still hasn't been demolished.
"If it's not safe, then why is it still standing?" said neighbour Cynthia Otfinowski. "I think it's a health hazard and it has potential to be a fire hazard."
The mailbox is overflowing, there is an empty tuna can on the front porch and an old mitt is sitting on what looks like a pile of a rotting wood.
The house was owned and occupied by Don Mestdagh for more than three decades. The 66-year-old had collected so much stuff over the years that he was no longer able to live inside and had been sleeping on the front porch. Before Mestdagh moved out, the water had been cut off for three years because the meter reader couldn't get into the house.
In November 2015, the city condemned the home and forced Mestdagh out.
That was 19 months ago.
'It's a source of vermin'
"There's been mice in the area and some people have reported rats, so basically it's a source of vermin for our neighbourhood," said Otfinowski.
"There's lots of mice around. They're even in my barbecue," said Ray MacNutt, who lives two doors down from the condemned house. "Yeah, they're all in our yard."
MacNutt fears if the house isn't torn down soon, it could become a fire hazard.
According to the Manitoba Land Titles registry, the house has been sold twice since November 2015.
A city spokesperson said the home was reported vacant in July 2016 and is currently on the vacant building registry.
"The City's bylaw enforcement division and planning, property and development department are aware that the new owner had plans to secure a demolition permit and a reconstruction permit," said spokesperson Kailey Barron in an email.
Barron couldn't speak to the permit application for privacy reasons but said, "in general, once a demolition permit has been issued, [the] bylaw enforcement [division] expects that demolition would begin in a timely manner consistent with the property owner's plans so that compliance to minimum property standards are met."
New owner says demolition coming soon
The home's current owner, Srena Homes Inc., told CBC news it expects demolition will begin in the next week or two.
"We were waiting for City of Winnipeg process, we were waiting for permits," said Armin Barsomian, spokesperson for Srena Homes Inc.
Barsomian said he wasn't sure when the company had applied for the permits.
He said once the house is torn down a new one will be built in its place. The new home has already been sold to a St. Boniface family who've been given a possession date of Sept. 29, 2017.
"The house, the plans, the square footage of the home — we have all that already set in stone so possession is going to be coming up in the near future and, you know, we have to follow the timeline and get things going," said Barsomian.
Otfinowski is hopeful the home will be torn down soon, but isn't prepared to bet on it.
"The frustration is that it keeps sounding like something's gonna happen and it doesn't," she said.
"I think last year we saw people moving stuff out so we thought that was positive progress … Hydro comes in, we think, 'OK, now it's gonna happen.' We heard a month ago it was gonna happen, we hear again it's gonna happen.
"I don't know how many times we need to believe it before we see it."
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- with files from Marianne Klowak