'This is a mess': Exasperated judge gives condemned luxury home 10-day reprieve
Homeowner says maintenance of the unit is the responsibility of someone else while he is away
A Saskatoon judge took the unusual step Monday night of driving by a condemned luxury home in the Briarwood neighbourhood to help make sense of an emergency application scheduled to be heard at Court of Queen's Bench on Tuesday morning.
A backhoe and skid-steer loader sat parked on the front lawn of 166 Beechdale Crescent. The big machines were scheduled to begin tearing down the half-million-dollar, two-storey building.
Instead, Justice Richard Elson granted a 10 day reprieve, allowing the lawyer for the home's owner to prepare a proper argument to save the property.
"The city has a very strong position," Elson said.
The hour-long hearing at Court of Queen's Bench answered some of the questions that surfaced days ago when news broke about the city's planned demolition of the house.
The China Connection
We know now that the home's owner is a man named Liu Yu, a Chinese national. He lived in Saskatoon in 2016 when he bought the house in Briarwood.
Then, he moved back to China and — according to his lawyer, Ling Ma — left maintenance of the house in the hands of the agent from whom he bought the house.
But that never happened.
Neighbours began complaining about the foul stench coming from the house earlier this year. They also voluntarily took over maintenance of the yard.
The smell came from standing water inside the house which accumulated after pipes burst.
In March, the city issued what lawyer Alan Rankine described as a "generic order" to remedy the property. That order was rescinded in May and replaced with a second order to clear the site. It also ordered demolition of the house.
On July 17, final notice was given that the city was stepping in to remedy the contraventions. The notice was sent to Liu by registered mail and posted on the house.
None of these communications were appealed.
A cousin in Seattle
Ling Ma would not say where in China her client lives, why he left the city after buying the house, nor would she reveal what he did in Saskatoon.
Yu first learned of the demolition order from his cousin in Seattle this past weekend, according to Ma. The cousin saw news reports and relayed the information.
Yu then reached out to Ma in Saskatoon, who then applied for the emergency hearing on his behalf.
"This really big loss for him. It's a big house and it's a fair amount of money in the market," Ma said in an interview after the hearing.
'A bare bones application'
Justice Elson said that he ordered the emergency hearing at Court of Queen's Bench because of Ma's "bare bones application" for an injunction to stop demolition.
Elson described Ma's supporting affidavit as containing "a large measure of second-hand information." In addition, the application did not have a statement of claim attached and that the entire matter landed on his desk with no notice.
It so perplexed him that he took, in his words, the extraordinary step of first personally contacting Ma and then driving by the home himself after court on Monday night.
"What do you suggest I do," he asked Ma in court. "This is a mess."
Ma requested three weeks to prepare the statement of claim and assemble proper affidavits.
"No," said Elson.
"Two weeks," Ma countered.
"No," Elson said once more.
Elson finally gave Ma and her client ten days and scheduled a hearing for Oct. 11.
The city of Saskatoon opposed the delay. Rankine said that officials followed all the necessary steps to lead to the demolition, including having a city staffer who speaks Mandarin call Yu and explain the situation.
Rankine also disputed whether the time frame would be fair to the city, because it would then need time to respond to the points raised by Yu.
"Meanwhile, the contractor's equipment is sitting there," Rankine added.
Elson said that Ma will need to present "strong, compelling evidence" to prevent the demolition.
He asked Ma whether Liu Yu would return to Saskatoon and appear personally in ten days to address this. Ma said that she did not know.
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