Moncton beefs up home inspection bylaw

Moncton is overhauling the city's house inspection rules, adding more visits by inspectors and expanding their responsibilities to include checking the elevation of new houses.

Starting in January, Moncton inspectors will be going over houses three times and, for the first time, will also examine elevation levels.

Sherry Sparks, the city's director of building inspection, said the new inspections will be completed before a house foundation is backfilled, and the checks will include bringing in a land surveyor.

She said the new inspection regime will give homeowners "long-term … peace of mind" that their homes are actually in the right location and at the right elevation.

Sparks said the new rules will cost builders between $1,000 and $1,500 per home.

"Basically [the inspection cost] is a minimal cost versus what it would take if in fact you had to move a building or raise a building," Sparks said.

New bylaw welcomed

The new inspection bylaw is designed to prevent more Moncton residents from enduring the nightmare confronted by Lisa and Tim Holt.

The young couple purchased a $139,000 home in a newly developed subdivision in 2006.

When the sold sign was plunked down on their property, the Holts thought they had their dream house.

But Lisa Holt said she noticed something was wrong when the neighbours started building and their homes were a few feet higher, and when the street was paved the couple, couldn't even get into their driveway because the elevations were so different.

The extent of their problems began to crystallize when the couple met a Moncton city inspector about their elevation concerns.

"[The inspector] said your house is built two feet too low and you guys have 10 days to come up with a solution or the City of Moncton's going come in and raise it at your expense," Lisa Holt said.

After leaving the meeting with the city official, the Holts contacted a lawyer to see what their options were. Lisa Holt still recalls that moment as "one of the worst days of my life."

The Holts had assumed their new home had been inspected by the city, but at that point, the city didn't check for elevations.

The couple paid an engineer $1,000 to come up with a drainage plan for the house at its current elevation.

However, the Greater Moncton Planning District Commission turned the plan down, and denied their appeal. Their only other option is to raise the house and that would cost $75,000.

"We think it'd be fair if someone came in and fixed it," she said.

"Whether it be to raise our house and pay for it or I'm OK with it being approved at this elevation and some really good landscaping. Either way we just want to be out of this mess."

Family 'did everything correctly'

Coun. Brian Hicks said the couple shouldn't be left to deal with that bill on their own.

"Lisa and Tim, in my opinion, did everything correctly," Hicks said.

"The city will maintain, 'Well your lawyer should have checked to make sure all those grades and everything were exactly to code.' When if you ask any lawyer in the city - just about everyone that I've talked to — have said we never check those things, that's not what lawyers do."

Hicks said it's clear a lot of mistakes were made.

While he said it isn't just the city that's at fault, he added it's time for council to work with the couple to come up with a solution outside of a courtroom.

"No young couple would want to be in this situation," he said. "You wouldn't want to think when you come to the City of Moncton that you could potentially purchase a home and this happen to you. So I think from the city's point of view, this is not a story that you want to see continuing on. This could become a national story [and] it doesn't make us appear to be a real intelligent city."