Condo owners at Prairie Heights face expensive, smelly cleanup before troubled tower re-opens

Bobbi Korven says she saw the writing on the wall about the Prairie Heights condo tower two weeks ago.

That's when raw sewage began seeping and dripping into her suite from the unit above. At that point, she knew the building was in big trouble.

"My place is obviously a pigsty because of all the sewer that's coming in." she said.

"I don't know what to do."

Korven is not alone. On May 6, the city stepped in and closed all 44 units in the building, saying the suites and common areas are a health and safety issue.

The closure order sets in motion a chain of events that may ultimately change who owns the units, says lawyer Jamie Herle.

"The community as a whole is going to have to make a decision with respect to the common property and all of the work that has to be done to the condo building as a whole, and whether all of the owners are going to chip in to fix that property in proportion, of course," she said.

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The catch is that the building's owners have shown little appetite to work together. The condo board has effectively dissolved, fees are outstanding from individuals who own multiple units, and owners such as Korven, who still has a mortgage on her unit, are thinking about simply leaving.

"I don't know what to do, to tell you the truth, I'm just at loggerheads. I'd like to just walk away," Korven said.

Herle said trying to negotiate with the multiple players that have interests in the building can be daunting to an individual owner.

Those players range from the province, which administers the Condominium Property Act, to the city and its health and safety bylaws, to the banks and their mortgage interests, to the courts where the matters may play out.

"There's a lot of balls in the air to do this on your own," Herle said.

She said that convincing the various owners to chip in money to fix the common areas like stairwells and lobbies, repair their own units and pay the arrears to the city for the previous work is an uphill battle.

"So what could happen at the end of the day, you might end up with one or two owners who pull their weight and do what they do," Herle said.

"So they remain on title and you might have four different banks or 20 different banks step in. And you might end up with a mishmash."