City of Winnipeg suing owner of vacant home for $16K in unpaid fees

A Winnipeg woman who used to help house refugees is being sued by the city, which says she's left a home she owns vacant and in a state of disrepair for years.

In a statement of claim filed with Court of King's Bench last week, the city alleges Karin Gordon owes $16,247 in overdue fees, which were issued after the city did several inspections between 2017 to 2024 at her vacant property at 75 Egerton Rd.

Inspectors found combustibles, scrap metal and garbage inside, as well as mouse feces and black mould throughout the house, in the city's Glenwood neighbourhood, according to the claim.

It's among 51 lawsuits the city said it has filed so far this year related to vacant buildings in Winnipeg.

The legal proceedings are part of a wider push from the city to crack down on a growing number of vacant and derelict buildings, some of which have burned down, leaving piles of rubble that sometimes sit for years.

But Gordon said she didn't know she owed that amount to the city until she read a story about the lawsuit in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. 

She said she received a call from the city about an inspection earlier this year and also went to city hall to change her address information, but still hasn't received an invoice. 

"They haven't made very much of an effort to communicate," she said. "My health has been declining, and I'm having difficulties with memory."

Gordon said she decided to move out of the Egerton Road property in 2017 to live in a spare bedroom at a refugee settlement house operated by the non-profit Hospitality House, where she formerly served as executive director. She'd had kidney removal surgery that left her unable to manage the stairs at the two-storey Egerton home.

"My daughters went through and took the furniture and pieces that they wanted, and then I just locked the door," she said. 

The property on Egerton Road has since been unoccupied. The city says it's one of 540 residential buildings that are currently vacant in Winnipeg, of which 357 also have unpaid fees for vacant building inspection.

Gordon said she continued paying for utilities, property taxes and the house's mortgage, hoping to one day move back, but scratched that plan three years later, when she had to start using a walker. 

She suspects squatters broke into the property and changed the locks at some point.

"I've gone back into the house to take a look.… It's a terrible mess," Gordon said.

"There's about four inches of rubble on the floor when you walk into the dining room. You can barely see through the entrance. There's just stuff all over the place." 

Lawsuits a last alternative: city

The city's lawsuit says enforcement officers did several inspections to determine whether the home complied with municipal regulations for vacant properties. 

In addition to the mould and debris found inside, the windows and doors were partially boarded or broken, while sections of the ceiling and interior walls were missing or damaged, the inspectors said.

The city issued invoices annually from 2020 to 2024 for inspection fees, the court filing says, as well as empty building invoices from 2022 to 2024, amounting to $16,247.

The lawsuit says the city served the invoices at Gordon's address, but none of the fines have been paid and are now past due. 

A spokesperson said in a statement while the city won't comment on specific cases before the courts, it attempts to work with property owners to resolve any issues related to vacant buildings, and only goes to court "when there are no other alternatives."