WATCH: City cracking down on vacant property problems

• Property owners must prevent unauthorized entry
• Four steps of enforcement introduced
• Four particular houses have resulted in hundreds of emergency calls

Unoccupied properties in Kelowna will be getting a lot more attention and it could mean a hefty bill for their owners, and hopefully, save taxpayer dollars.

The city tracked four properties across the city - although did not divulge the addresses - that have been called to 287 times by emergency crews between 2019 and 2022.

Kelowna city council has approved an update to the Fire and Life Safety Bylaw, raising the requirements for property owners to maintain vacant and damaged buildings.

The update includes four steps of increasing enforcement based on the number of times the premises have been broken into or vandalized.

Four stages of enforcement

“This certainly falls in our mandate of being firm and fair as a council in the sense that we need to take action on troubled properties, but we need to do it in a fair way,” councillor Luke Stack said.

“I think the four-stage escalation is our attempt to give every opportunity for a landowner to comply.”

The first of the four steps requires the owner to secure the building from unauthorized entry; including a no-trespassing sign, and all entries being sealed with plywood.

The owner must do so within 24 hours of being notified. If they can’t be reached, the Fire Chief or a designate can have a contractor secure the property at their cost.

After a first breach, a security company must be contracted to visit the site twice per night. After a second incident, the premises must have security fencing. After a third, security must remain on site continuously.

All expenses associated with securing the property are the responsibility of the owner and not taxpayers.

The intent behind the four steps and the updates to the bylaw are to reduce the number of times the fire department, RCMP, and Bylaw would be called to these places.

Council noted that existing enforcement steps have proven ineffective on certain properties of concern. The city has been dealing with an increasing number of cases involving vacant or occupied homes damaged by fire or break ins.

The proposed changes will also permit fire crews to have the building and area secured to a defined level of safety after suppressing a fire there.

“I’m really happy to see this come forward,” Mayor Colin Basran said. “Certainly, council has received complaints of this nature – I wouldn’t say regularly- but certainly our fair share.

“To see this come forward to help us deal with it in a more strict manner will certainly make a lot of neighborhoods happy. So, really pleased to see this.”