A Clayton landlord says Freedom of Information requests prove the City of Surrey is lying about parking complaints it has received in East Clayton.
Greg Garner says the city is 鈥渕isleading the public about why they are proceeding with these mass evictions鈥� after 175 landlords received notices that the city would fine and take them to court if they didn鈥檛 remove suites by Jan. 31, 2018.
Bylaw manager Jas Rehal previously stated there were 7,600 complaints in three years, however an FOI document states that amount was received over five years, from 2013-2017.
Rehal acknowledged that he 鈥渟hould鈥檝e said five years鈥� not three.
The city says the crackdown is an effort to resolve parking issues that have plagued the area for years, but Garner says the FOI shows the number of complaints are being inflated.
See also:
See also:
But residents didn鈥檛 stop there. Garner and several other targeted landlords FOI鈥檇 complaints against their property.
This, after Rehal told the Now-Leader that enforcement is 鈥渄efinitely complaint based.鈥�
Garner said the results were 鈥渟taggering.鈥� Of the eight parking complaints associated with seven of the homes in the FOI, not one contained a license plate number.
Some properties didn鈥檛 have a single complaint.
One response from City of Surrey FOI Assistant Jennifer Baetz for a property on 72A Avenue stated, 鈥淭he Bylaws Division conducted a search of records related to complaints, including parking complaints, for your address. The records related to parking complaints were gathered from a database search of the City鈥檚 third party provider for parking services, Concord Security Corporation.
It adds: 鈥淲e have confirmed with the Bylaws Division, there are no records of complaints related to your address other than the records enclosed.鈥�
See also:
See also:
In response to another property on 68th Avenue, the FOI response stated the 鈥淏ylaws Division did not locate any parking complaints specifically related to the address.鈥�
As for the homes that did have complaints, Garner says there would be no way to know who a vehicle parked on the street belonged to or connect it to a residence.
For example, a property on 195A Street had two complaints: one about vehicles blocking the laneway in 2014 and a subsequent one about a U-Haul truck being parked in the residential area all day.
Another example of this is a property on 72A Avenue about a car parked too close to a walkway.
And a property on 68th Avenue had a parking complaint lodged against it from 2016 regarding a vehicle and trailer, which had 鈥淏ig Jesus billboards鈥� on it.
The complaint said it parked in the same spot for over a week, taking up three parking stalls and obstructing the bike lane.
鈥淭his vehicle is well known in Clayton and belonged to the neighbour, yet the city registered the complaint against this homeowner,鈥� said Garner.
He said the city is lying about the number of complaints, and says the statement they are relying on complaints to guide enforcement is also false.
鈥淩esidents of Clayton could unknowingly have parking complaints documented against their home in city databases without knowing it because someone you have never met parked illegally in front of your home,鈥� said Garner.
鈥淚 would urge Surrey residents to call the city and get this rectified as maybe down the road they will use this information to do arbitrary enforcement on your home.鈥�
See also:
Asked about the FOI results and the discrepancy between what the city has said, Rehal emailed this statement to the Now-Leader on Nov. 23.
鈥淓nforcement is complaint based, but we also take into account the history of the property in our system (previous files/suite investigations), parking complaints in the surrounding area, and parking complaints on specific streets. We review all the relevant information that we have on hand and take the appropriate steps.鈥�
Prior to that email, on Nov. 15, Rehal told the Now-Leader the 7,600 complaints are not tied to a specific address.
Rather, Rehal said the city has received 298 complaints this year that were tied to a specific address and 鈥渢hat wasn鈥檛 included in the FOI because it wasn鈥檛 asked for鈥� or there was more information available if the applicants wished to pay a fee.
鈥淲e released what we could now, and responded back with a fee estimate to do more digging,鈥� Rehal noted.
鈥淭hat was not released so that鈥檚 some of the confusion.鈥�
But Garner says his FOIs against seven properties have searched both of the city鈥檚 databases 鈥� Posse and Concord 鈥� so there is no avenue left to find complaints.
鈥淚 expect my elected officials and city representatives to be truthful and this clearly hasn鈥檛 happened in this case,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t is easy to be truthful in this case, 7,600 parking complaints in five years, based on the FOI information provided. There shouldn鈥檛 be any variance in reporting this number but yet there has been.鈥�
Furthermore, Garner questions how the city can 鈥渓egally and morally use this inaccurate data鈥� to evict people.
鈥淭he city themselves has said a blanket enforcement approach does not work yet they are using this approach on 175 homes in Clayton,鈥� Garner stated.
Meantime, the city鈥檚 effort to crackdown on the many illegal suites in Clayton is still 鈥渙n hold鈥� after Surrey city council asked staff how they鈥檙e going to work with tenants in illegal suites.
While a report to council in October noted staff have received significant positive feedback about the move, it has also been met by much opposition, both from landlords, but also the tenants living in the homes.
See also:
During that meeting, Councillor Bruce Hayne said he鈥檇 鈥渓ike to see more on this corporate report from staff.鈥�
While Hayne and several other councillors said there was no point in having bylaws in the city if they鈥檙e not enforced, he acknowledged this is a 鈥渉uman issue鈥� and said 鈥渨e have to work very closely and compassionately with the community.鈥�
Haye said he鈥檇 鈥渓ike to see more information from staff on how staff is going to work with the community, how we鈥檙e going to communicate with the community, to achieve these goals.鈥�
That report has yet to materialize.
Councillor Judy Villeneuve told the Now-Leader that staff expect to have a report before council before the end of 2017, and that the city is 鈥渘ot taking any further action until we get the report back.鈥�
amy.reid@surreynowleader.com
Like us on and follow Amy on
