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A West Kelowna couple say they have been unjustifiably evicted and suffer the total loss of their home, which they have bought and lived in for eight years.
Ed Schneider and Ross Arnot bought a waterfront home in Jubilee Mobile Home Park in the West Bank First Nation lands in 2007.
The sale included a home and a detached garage on the same property. The two had been sold twice in the past as a unit, were on the same property according to the site map, and the sale was approved by the owners – Princess Enterprises, owned by the Tomat family – under WFN’s bylaws.
They paid about $ 300,000 for the house and have done about $ 100,000 worth of work since then.
In October 2013, the couple put the house up for sale, and in November of that year, as in previous years, they took a long Arizona vacation.
On January 16, 2014, they were faxed a letter stating that the park owners would use the garage as a “maintenance building” without compensation for Schneider and Arnot and that they had until February 1, 2014 to vacate the building.
“We were 2,500 miles away in Arizona,” said Schneider. “We feel like we’ve fallen through the rabbit hole.”
In response, the couple sent a letter stating that they would not give up the garage without compensation as they had bought it as a unit with the house and it was full of their belongings. Also, they had paid for an alarm system to be installed in the garage and they were in Arizona so they couldn’t return in time to deal with the matter. The garage is behind a full-length chain link fence and a cedar hedge on the couple’s property.
Schneider said they heard nothing until they were served another eviction notice, this time for their apartment.
Schneider said they always paid the rent on the property by writing postdated checks a year in advance. They are close friends with their neighbors and have not had any problems with anyone in the park.
They made an oral offer for the home for $ 369,000 after an appraisal posted the value at $ 360,000.
Since the problem with the workshop, they have only been able to secure a written offer for $ 279,000.
“Usually someone evicted from a rental situation is allowed to sell the house and a new lease is signed with the buyers,” he said. “The tomatoes have informed us that they will not issue a new lease for this property.”
This “effectively prohibits us from selling the house,” he said.
Schneider and Arnot have gone through two arbitration negotiations with the West Bank First Nation, both of which have confirmed Princess Enterprises’ decision to evict the couple without compensation.
Schneider said there had been at least 14 more sales in the anniversary park since February 2014 – all buyers were granted leases.
“We don’t get it. What totally fried our bananas was when the original arbitrator said, ‘We don’t think this is a financial emergency,” Schneider said. “I’m sorry, but if you don’t hand over the keys to your house and you and your family move out without financial compensation, are you telling me it’s not a hardship? We’re screwed because we have a mortgage on the house, so we can’t take out a mortgage on another house. ”
The couple have so far spent over $ 20,000 in legal fees. “This is borrowed money and if we add more legal fees the bill could be $ 40,000 to $ 80,000.”
Apparently, Schneider and Arnot only have the option of leaving the house with a total loss or paying for the transport by truck to another location.
The move alone could cost up to $ 50,000, not to mention the cost of dismantling the extensive additions and renovations that have been carried out over the past eight years.
They launched a FundRazr crowdfunding campaign to raise the money to take this fight to court or to pay for the dismantling and moving of their home.
The West Bank First Nation office, the Princess Enterprise office and the Jubilee Mobile Home Park manager were unavailable for comment on Saturday.
The couple’s lawyer, Paul Varga, says they were both “slapped in the face” by their RV park administration.
