Residents had to move out of Park Place last summer while engineers figured out how to address suspected earthquake damage. But delays in the insurance claim have proved frustrating for many residents.
File photo
When Keryn Timmerman and her husband traded in their Saskatchewan home for a cozy condo in Oliver three years ago they thought they found the home of their dreams. A quiet 43-suite, self-managed strata situated in the heart of BC’s famous Okanagan Valley seemed like a perfect place for the snowbirds to spend their golden years.
The couple soon discovered they got more than they bargained for. On November 18, 2011, less than one year after the Timmermans moved in to Park Place, the Okanagan was hit with a 4.6 magnitude earthquake. It wasn’t long after that the problems began and cracks in the structure started to appear.
Upon investigation, a geotechnical engineer hired by the strata council discovered cracks in the floors and drywall, as well as water problems due to what the engineer referred to as “liquification of the soil.” The residents also learned they were 100 feet from a fault line, and though there was no damage to the foundation of the building during the earthquake, it is suspected that the magnitude of the seismic activity in 2011 destabilized the building.
In June 2013, the Timmermans, along with 58 other strata owners, were given notice to vacate the property by September 1, while a report was completed and submitted for the strata’s insurance company to evaluate – leaving 60 residents in search of lodging with no idea when they would be able to return to their homes.
“People are confused, people are upset, and people are confused and upset,” Timmerman said.
“We put a lot into our home, it was the place we were going to live in until we couldn’t live at home anymore, and we were really happy there. It’s been six months, which to us, feels like a very long time, but most times insurance companies wait a year.”
Park Place residents continue to wait for an answer from the insurance company regarding their claim that an earthquake damaged the building in 2011. One study showed that walls and beams had shifted, and cracks appeared in the foundation. File photo
Timmerman said August was a difficult time for them, but the amount of support that poured in from the town “helped a lot.”
“This town has been terrific to us. People donated boxes and moving supplies, they fundraised to help us with moving expenses and packing material. I hate to name names because there were so many. It was typical small town and it was great. But there wasn’t any help from any of the insurance companies; we haven’t even been able to access our additional living expenses.”
The strata corporation filed a claim after its engineers confirmed that cracks throughout the building were caused by the earthquake, but the owners will likely not receive any kind of settlement from their personal insurance companies until Park Place’s claim is settled.
At at meeting on January 4, strata corporation president Stuart Syme revealed that he is still awaiting a response from their insurance company.
“It’s frustrating for my wife and I. We bought there and spent seven months renovating. We invested every penny we had. And we were going to die there. And the earthquake happened just a couple of months after we moved in.”
Despite mounting frustrations, Syme said he is confident things will start to move quickly now.
“If they accept the claim, wonderful. Then the necessary work to determine how to go about fixing the building would start soon I suspect. If they deny the claim we have to consider all of our options.”
Syme said one of those options would be to hire their geotechnical engineer to conduct a more in depth investigation.
“We have legal council, we have engineers, we have consultants. We’ll sit down as a community and study all of our options. But like our brokers have been telling us all along, if they don’t deny the claim we can’t sue them.”
Syme told his fellow residents that although he doesn’t know what all of the options are just yet, he expects that it will cost the residents more money.
In the meantime, the Timmermans are starting to feel the financial pinch, and Keryn said she suspects they are not the only ones.
“We’re okay but this has definitely eaten into our savings and we are thinking of looking for a cheaper place to rent,” she said.
“It’s a balance of how much cheaper it can get and how much it will cost to move again, but we’re not the worst off, there are people with mortgages to pay off, and very low income, it’s tough. We’re just ordinary people; you go along in your life and you just try to keep up and read everything you can. You plan for your retirement but you can’t really plan for something like this.”
Erin Christie
Oliver Chronicle
