Vancouver's first-time home buyers aren't the only ones finding the financial burden of buying a home difficult.
Article Contents
The District of West Vancouver has halted renovations a YouTuber was doing on an abandoned home she bought with her boyfriend eight months ago.
“I have some very bad news for you,” Jenna Phipps, 28, told her 1.5 million subscribers in a video posted to the online platform last week.
“This is probably the worst news ever,” added her 27-year-old boyfriend, Nick Volkoff.
Ad 2
Article Contents
The couple, who bought the 2,757-square-foot home on a rocky bluff overlooking Howe Sound for $2.1 million in September, hoped to turn it into a permanent home through DIY work.
But on May 17, the district issued a stop order to construction on the home. Six days later, the district granted an emergency permit to remove part of the roof.
However, the rest of the house is still subject to legal notice.
“All necessary building permits and trade licenses must be issued, with necessary assurances from registered professionals, prior to construction commencing,” the District of West Vancouver told Postmedia News on Friday.
“The partial permission was granted based on exigencies identified through a structural engineer's assessment submitted by the owner.”
Phipps and Volkoff, who said they applied for the permit in February, expressed frustration with the length of time it took the district to process their application.
“We've been going back and forth with the city for about three months,” Phipps said in the video.
While waiting for a response, the couple has been biding their time by clearing out furniture, ripping out drywall and hardwood floors and doing landscaping work on the property.
Article Contents
Ad 3
Article Contents
“We were just doing work that wasn't going to affect the structure,” Phipps said.
“The problem is, our city isn't very clear on how to go about doing the renovations. They haven't told us anything. They haven't told us what to do or what not to do.”
The reason the couple bought the house in need of repairs in the first place was because they wanted to live in a detached house in the area they wanted.
Vancouver's first-time home buyers aren't the only ones finding homeownership a huge financial burden.
A Royal Bank of Canada report released last month estimated that by the end of 2023, people will need 106.4 per cent of their median income to cover the costs of homeownership, meaning only a small proportion of high-income earners will be able to afford to buy a home or make a large down payment to buy one.
Given the condition of the property, Volkoff and Phipps opted to take out a private, two-year loan, and they hope they will be allowed to renovate the home so they can secure a conventional mortgage and refinance.
But the work that will have to be done at their house will be far from easy.
Ad 4
Article Contents
The house had been vacant for four years and was in such bad shape that the couple's real estate agent had them sign a waiver before they could move in. The roof was sloping, moldy, and damp from years of water seepage.
After receiving emergency permission last week to remove just a portion of the roof, Phipps and Volkoff got to work.
“Question: How do you remove the roof?” Phipps asks Volkov in his latest video.
“I don't know,” the technical project manager replied.
Editor's recommendation
-
YouTube content creator builds huge following with DIY home renovations in West Vancouver
-
West Vancouver's new park will be twice the size of Stanley Park
sgrochowski@postmedia.com
Please support our journalism by bookmarking our website: Don't miss the stories you need to know: Bookmark VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: just $14 per month gets you unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing now: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.
Article Contents