Kelowna senior evicted as city prepares to demolish his home

Janusz Grelecki has spent the last two nights sleeping in his truck beside a large pile of his possessions and building materials, after the City of Kelowna ordered the 73-year-old out of the home he has lived in for the past decade and a half.

The eviction on Tuesday was the culmination of an eight-year battle between Grelecki and the city over the state of his property and the multiple unpermitted renovation projects the city says have made it unsafe and unsightly.

"I don't have a place to go now. I try to catch up in my head what I do now, where I stay because I don't have a shower, no water, no shave," Grelecki said from the street outside his home, which is now surrounded by blue construction fencing.

"If I go behind fence, they arrest me. It is like mafia. I have 5,000 pounds of meat in my freezer. Now, access is shut down."

Behind the fence, Grelecki's two-storey home is in a state of ongoing construction with a large unfinished deck and a retaining wall with several pieces of rebar sticking out of it. 

Last week the city notified Grelecki of its plans to enforce a demolition order that city council approved in 2021.

A report to council at the time describes the house and retaining walls on the property as unsafe and cites multiple renovations that do not comply with the B.C. Building Code.

Bylaw officers made two dozen visits to the home on the edge of Kelowna's Rutland neighbourhood over a period of 10 years to deal with complaints about the unsightly property, construction noise, and solid waste storage, the report says.

"Multiple enforcement actions and compliance efforts have been made between 2010 and the present to attempt to have the owner bring and have the property remain in compliance," the report reads.

Grelecki, who immigrated to Canada from Poland over three decades ago, has spent the past three years fighting the demolition order, filing two civil lawsuits against the city and a recent application for an injunction to stop his home being torn down.

"I no give up. The city now thinking I am weak guy, so I try to show them wrong," he said.

"The house is intact. So what is the problem? Engineer, lawyer, everybody no have a clue why house [needs a] demolition."

A March 26 report from Elemental Structural Engineers, a company Grelecki hired to assess his property, disputes the city's claims.

"There are currently no significant defects inside the building that would give rise to any serious safety concerns," the report states.