Castanet

A single dad and two young girls are being forced out of their rented farm house because the owner fears the Agricultural Land Commission.

The owner is building a new house and the ALC says the old farm house has to be gone within 6 months of an occupancy permit being issued. Currently the new house is not even fully framed yet the Vancouver based landlord is kicking this family out. They have no place to go as rentals are non existent in Naramata. It is also freezing cold.

It should be noted that the house will sit empty after the family is evicted. Reminds me of all the foreign owned empty houses in Vancouver.

The young father has rented some shipping containers to store their belongings but does not want to pull the kids from their school which may have to happen if they move to Kelowna to live with grandparents.

If anyone has more insight as to what ALR rules say about this please email me at [email protected]

I would recommend calling the residential tenancy board. This is a pretty rare circumstance, still I would think if a contract was in place proper notice would have to be given and rules followed.

Being in Naramata, you may want to contact your RDOS director, I believe she is also Chair of the RDOS, her name is:
Karla Kozakevich. She may be able to point you in the right direction. This is the second eviction out in Naramata. Some of you might recall the woman with 2 children being evicted from a house owned by the Naramata Centre back around Christmas - here link to that: viewtopic.php?f=110&t=76325#p2281559

I wish this dad well.

Having 2 residents/houses on the same property, could be problem (I could be wrong). Even though the second one is only being built.

I believe on ALR land, only one residential building can be built/located. Outbuildings cannot be used for residential.

Would be nice to be able to have a carriage house.

seewood wrote:I believe on ALR land, only one residential building can be built/located. Outbuildings cannot be used for residential.

Would be nice to be able to have a carriage house.

As far as I know on ALR you can have a second house but it is only able to be a certain % of the main house size.

As far as I know on ALR you can have a second house but it is only able to be a certain % of the main house size.[/quote]


The ALR allows for no secondary residence on properties 5 acres and under unless it's directly being used for farming the property. The problem here is not the fact that the house isn't allowed, It's that the land owners have decided to leave the house vacant while the family goes homeless. They have 6 months after occupancy notice has been given for the new home (which is 6 months away from completion) yet they have decided to not allow the rental to continue.

myperson wrote:As far as I know on ALR you can have a second house but it is only able to be a certain % of the main house size.

The ALR allows for no secondary residence on properties 5 acres and under unless it's directly being used for farming the property. The problem here is not the fact that the house isn't allowed, It's that the land owners have decided to leave the house vacant while the family goes homeless. They have 6 months after occupancy notice has been given for the new home (which is 6 months away from completion) yet they have decided to not allow the rental to continue.[/quote]

Your right,
A carriage house can be added with an approved application to the ALC and then receiving A1c zoning.

Im still a little unclear on a few different things with the OP
-what was the current terms of the lease (month to month, lease?)
-when are the tenants required to be out by?
-what if any notice was given?

This is an unusual situation and would still recommend talking with the tenancy board and the RDOS

why do people feel they can tell the property owner what they can do with their home and property? if youre being evicted that's that it sucks but that's the way it is if the owner wants to leave it empty that's their choice if they want to put goats in there its their choice . maybe the owner is going to live in it until their new place is finished either way it doesn't matter its their home, im guessing that getting them out early saves them having to deal with it closer to the deadline and possibly having a problem. if you really want to help, find them a place to live.

So, let's all be mad at the landlord for following the law?

The lease had just expired and was to continue with month to month thereafter. They were verbally told that they could have the place for upwards of 4 years though only 1 year had passed. Yes, the owners can do what they want with the place. They will not extend.. at all. The problem is there's zero compassion being shown here. The house will be left vacant as the owners will not be occupying until Aug if at all. With nothing available to rent and nowhere to go this is a perfect example of what's wrong with humanity. Even allowing them to live in the home until they find a house or move when the owners want in would be more acceptable. It's sad to see the state we've become. Greed is our ultimate demise as the human race goes.

don't get me wrong i feel for the family but you cant really fault the landlord and unless the owner does plan on moving in I'm sure they can work something out for an extra month until they find something

The trouble is that as soon as you build some flexibility into the system to allow for special circumstances like this, there will be some corndog who finds a way to twist things into an unfair advantage for themselves. A few bad apples and so on...

I believe the landlord/owner is from the Lower Mainland. Maybe he is following the Residential Tenancy Act in evicting his tenant. That might take 2 to 3 months. He could then use the old house to stay in on his frequent trips to Naramata as he completes his new house. I don't expect him to rent a hotel room while he has a perfectly good house to stay in.

Anonymous123 wrote:That might take 2 to 3 months

Good point. The time fame for an owner or owner family member was two months notice.

Thing is Naramata is a nice place to live. Rentals are scarce and once one is found there really is no guarantee it will be forever...