After months of back-and-forth with the owner of an unsafe, dilapidated trailer considered "offensive to the community," staff are asking city council to force Attila Homes Ltd. to comply with a clean-up order or charge the company if the city has to step in.
Attila Meszaros, the principal shareholder of the company, repeatedly told city staff he had reached out to BC Hydro and Public Works Utilities to deal with the trailer at 3907 Richet St., but as far as staff could tell that never happened.
Staff said council should order the registered owner, Attila Homes Ltd., Inc. No. 2011636210, to demolish the home, remove all debris and level the site no later than 5 p.m. April 25.
If the motion is passed at council Monday, the owner has until April 8 - two weeks before the tear-down date - to ask council to reconsider the order.
The city has been monitoring the site since July 2015 when it asked Meszaros to repair or remove the building because the roof was falling in and also cut overgrown grass and weeds by early August.
Several pictures show the property with boarded up windows and almost half of the roof caved in.
Council should declare the property a nuisance and "in an unsafe condition that requires remedial action to demolish and remove the damaged structure, and level the site," said the report's first recommendation.
The report, authored by city planning and development general manager Ian Wells, outlined 12 separate attempts from bylaw services to check the property or work with Meszaros to address the problem.
Meszaros eventually asked for an extension on an order to demolish, he said, "due to contractors being on holidays and to give the utility companies sufficient time to ensure a safe site," according to the city report.
The city granted that request, as asked, until the end of September, but on Oct. 1 Meszaros said "he was in the process of getting the city confirmation of the disconnects so he could pull the demolition permit."
Meszaros kept telling the city he had reached out to deal with the demolition permit and utilities disconnection, but when investigators checked with BC Hydro and Public Works Utilities, they found that they had no records of any such contact.
In once instance Meszaros "advised he had gotten confirmation from the various utilities that things have been disconnected and he would forward those to Bylaw Services, but (that) was never received.
If the owner doesn't follow city's instructions, then the report said the city will do the work and consider it a debt.
But, the property has already cost the city in staff time to inspect and monitor the property leading up to the report and more expected hours to determine if the owner follows through on city orders, should they be approved Monday.
The city will be in a position to charge some of those costs to the owner, however, "if action is taken to obtain compliance." In that case, all those costs would be charged by the city as a debt owed and if unpaid "added to the property taxes as arrears at the end of the year."
It's in the city's interest to force properties like the Richet Street trailer to comply, the report said.
"The existence of such conditions is detrimental to the welfare of the residents of the City and contributes substantially and increasingly to the deterioration of neighbourhoods," the report said, and its removal will improve Prince George's "general welfare and image."
Last year, the city also ordered the Laundromat at George Street be demolished as well as several unsightly properties at the Lombardy Mobile Home Park.
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