Vancouver Suburb Fights Illegal Home Conversions

The city of Surrey, a Vancouver suburb that shares a border with Washington state, is ramping up its efforts to curb illegal residential conversions. But even after issuing dozens of fines, officials say the problem is far from resolved.

In a renewed enforcement push, Surrey officials targeted a slew of unpermitted and unsafe construction projects, including barns converted into apartments, carports repurposed as living quarters and homes subdivided into as many as eight dwelling units without city approval, the Vancouver Sun reported.

Mayor Brenda Locke called many of the cases “egregious,” citing recent examples like a rooftop deck built without railings or permits.

“When you see a person take a barn and turn it into five apartments, that is really the kind of property that we should never see,” Locke said.

Surrey formed a dedicated illegal construction enforcement team in 2022 and doubled the fine for unpermitted work to $1,000. Yet, city officials say the volume of illegal construction remains largely unchanged. Over the past year, 22 properties have been fined more than $50,000 each, with 73 bylaw enforcement notices issued.

This is happening amid a larger housing crisis in Canada’s most expensive city. Both home prices and rent have surged in the Vancouver area over the last few years, the New York Times recently reported; the standard price for a single-family home in the city is around $1.5 million, up from $1 million five years earlier, and average rent is about $1,800. As a result, more residents have been moving to nearby cities, and new construction has been on the rise.

Contractors agree the illegal resi conversion problem is widespread across Metro Vancouver.

“You get a lot of shady contractors that’ll tell clients, ‘No, no, you don’t need a permit,’ and they’ll do it without a permit until they get caught,” said Randy Kautzman of Level One Construction, adding that such shortcuts can void homeowners’ insurance and lead to hazards.

Some owners move forward without permits to avoid delay, or when they feel the city would never approve the work. One northwest Surrey property was cited seven times for adding two secondary suites and a rooftop deck. City staff say work continued despite stop-work orders and fines, with some of the units already being rented out.

Surrey officials say they’ve improved permit turnaround times; some building permits are now issued within 10 months. That, Locke said, leaves “no excuse.”

“Quite frankly, I anticipate this will be an issue for a while because in the past there didn’t seem to be any action,” Locke said.

— Judah Duke