Few protections for homeowners

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/07/2023 (975 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We lived next door to a Polish grandmother who told us to call her Babcia. Her family sent flowers when we had twins. We had warm conversations with her family when they visited, but after a long life, she passed away. We were concerned about who might move in next after losing our kind neighbour.

Babcia’s house sold, but no one moved right in. Eventually, we learned that something would be renovated or built (it was unclear), next door. We’d invested a lot into our home over the 13 years we’d lived there. We felt worried.

We learned that as long as there was no zoning change, the new property owner could do pretty much whatever they wanted. According to Winnipeg’s bylaws, that means demolition and excavation can happen right up to the property line.

We met the builder involved and asked when demolition would occur. We were concerned about our home but also for our household, as our kids are sensitive to noise. The demolition dates kept changing. With no family in Canada or a cottage to borrow, we were sitting ducks just before school started in 2020, as the house next door came down.

Our house swayed like a boat in rough seas. I rushed our kids and dog out. We spent hours at a park and in our friends’ front yard. The demolition took two days.

My husband stayed home to document what was going on, including a visit by a structural engineer. He witnessed that the demolition caused a chimney collision with the house on the other side of the building site. The builder fixed this promptly.

For us, the difficulties were just beginning. Although our house’s foundation shifted, our house was still safe, but both the plaster and drywall were cracked.

Frequently, we found tradesmen parked at our house rather than at the construction site. Their trash was in our yard. Our kids struggled to play outside with the noise and debris. More than once, workers yelled at our kids, saying that it wasn’t safe to play in our yard.

We’d paid for a sturdy fence years before to keep our kids and dogs safe. We were happy to do it and told Babcia we’d pay for it, because “Good fences make good neighbours.”

The legal demolition and excavation next door killed a large tree’s root system. Their tree hung over our electric lines and shed. According to an arborist, the tree was a goner. When we asked for it to be removed, workers entered our backyard with no notice, only to trim the tree back. This tree was “all the way dead” but a 311 bylaw officer responded that, “They couldn’t tell if it was alive.” Yet, with half its roots removed, the dead tree could come down at any time.

As this drama progressed, we politely emailed the new neighbours and the builder. We received no response or requests that we meet face to face — during the pandemic. I juggled remote schooling twins with work. My husband’s workload also increased while working remotely. We chose email exchanges for safety’s sake to document what happened.

Construction continued, with on-site stone cutting to make a decorative sidewalk and chimney. This produced ear-splitting noise and dust throughout our home.

In 2021, we decided to go to small claims court. Shouldering a large plaster and drywall repair job because of the neighbour’s infill seemed beyond what we should manage as homeowners. The demolition happened in September 2020.

Our first court date was scheduled way in advance for February, 2022. The neighbours postponed, saying they would be out of the country without internet access. (It was snowing that day and they were clearing their front walk, so apparently this was a ruse.) The next scheduled date was in July 2022. On that court date, the judge was ill. Court was again postponed for six months but then, the neighbours’ lawyer was ill. We owned our house until March 2023. Our court date, postponed three times, was not until May 2023.

Details escaped our witness’s memory after such a long time. Trying to be upright, we didn’t coach anyone to review his notes. The new neighbour’s testimony stated we were extorting him — in small claims court! They posited that we couldn’t prove damage happened due to this huge construction project next door. The case was dismissed. Each side had to pay its own costs and fees. Despite what we’d gone through, we were eligible for no compensation.

We’d never planned to move during the pandemic. We managed to sell the house we’d lived in for 13 years but we never fixed the walls. In a city densification corridor, the house might be torn down anyway. This experience taught us a great deal.

Winnipeg’s current infill development bylaws don’t protect existing structures. Homeowners have few ways to seek redress for infill damage. Insurance doesn’t cover it. If you’re an unlucky homeowner and this happens to you — too bad! You must pay for the damages caused by living too close to infill construction.

Second, the court system here moves slowly. Life moves on. We waited through 2021-2022 as the new homeowners kept outdoor LEDs shining and strobing into our dining room and kitchen from November 11 to June. We didn’t want to live under a dead tree, near noisy construction, and a malevolent neighbour forever.

Finally, for some, polite emails, follow up, and requests to pay for damage caused by construction are considered unreasonable. If one goes to small claims court in Winnipeg to resolve a conflict, it’s acceptable to accuse next door neighbours of extortion.

Lots are small in Winnipeg’s mature neighbourhoods. Houses are close together. Despite all our snow shovelling, fence building, and other efforts, we learned Robert Frost’s words have limits.

In friendly Manitoba, no matter how great the fence is, not all fences make good neighbours.

Joanne Seiff is an opinion writer and author from Winnipeg.