Newmarket homeowner frets about ‘illegal’ construction next door

YorkRegion.com
July 22, 2016
Chris Simon

Mark Levert is losing sleep over his neighbour’s property.

The Sandford Street homeowner is becoming increasingly frustrated with the Town of Newmarket after finding out his next door neighbour allegedly completed a significant amount of renovation work without obtaining permits last year. The homeowner split the property into two units and now rents out the apartments, but Levert suspects a good deal of the work, including the installation of a gas line, could be shoddy. If that’s the case, it’s also an incredibly dangerous place to live beside.

“Why do we have laws, rules and building codes if someone purposely sets out to ignore them (and) there are no penalties?” he said. “If there is an explosion, my view is Newmarket bears a good portion of the responsibility. They have been informed of the build, they know there are no permits, no plans and clearly no inspection of the work. The (town) can say what they want, but if anything happens they are supposed to protect me and I pay lots of taxes for that service. I can’t get anybody to take the lead on this or take legal action to gain access to the house and make sure the gas work is done to code. It’s right next to my head.”

The town is looking into the matter and will be in contact with Levert once more is known. He will then be advised of any future action that could be taken.

However, once work has been completed on a property, it’s difficult to nail down exactly what happened and then administer a penalty, town chief building official David Potter said.

“When the town receives a call or complaint about active construction, we send a building inspector out to investigate,” he said. “For work that has been previously completed and unreported, it is often difficult for our inspectors to confirm what work was undertaken and when it took place.”

Levert says the town should tighten up its rules to hold property owners more accountable and prevent these types of incidents from happening in the future. 

“There should be changes in the bylaws to protect tax paying residents from this type of activity,” Levert said. “This is a loophole.”

Building permits for authorized new work are required to be posted at the construction site. Any resident who suspects illegal construction is taking place in their neighbourhood can contact the town at 905-895-5193.