Photo Dan Toulgoet
The owners of the Balmoral and Regent hotels were in court Tuesday for the first wave of charges filed by the city for failure to upgrade and maintain the safety of the buildings.
Balmoral landlords have history of neglect, so does city’s strategy on curbing such behaviour
On the same day, the City of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»issued an additional 426 orders against the Sahota family for standards of maintenance violations at both Downtown Eastside hotels. Engineers hired by the city found the two single-room occupancy hotels to be in extensive disrepair and structurally unsafe during inspections throughout 2017.
In June, residents had to vacate the Balmoral Hotel on East Hastings because it was in danger of collapsing, as the city’s orders for structural upgrades were ignored by the hotel owners. The city has now taken over the upgrades without a completion date set yet. The Regent Hotel, also on East Hastings, still operates, but the city had to install braces and supports to counteract the damage from leaking pipes, according to a city press release.
Jag Sandhu, spokesperson for the City of Vancouver, said the new orders may result in further charges, but the city prosecutor will assess charges incrementally.
In January 2018, the Sahotas will again be in court for 47 charges filed by the city last April against their Triville Enterprises, which owns the Regent Hotel, and the city is still waiting for court dates for another 23 charges filed in May. All charges stem from either violating building bylaws or standards of maintenance bylaws, which spell out the conditions for a building to be considered habitable and safe.
