Lacy Donald's Vernon home is unlivable after a construction mishap left it flooded with sewage, and while she's frustrated with the erring contractor, the single mother also says she and her 14-year-old daughter are being left high and dry by a "predatory" insurance system.
Donald said on the morning of July 11, she noticed crews digging a trench up her driveway and onto the front lawn of the residence she'd been renting on 35th Street. The crews were working to replace a water main that was due for replacement, a joint project between the Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) and the City of Vernon, though Donald said she wasn't notified that the driveway would be made inaccessible that day.
Around 5:30 p.m., after crews had left for the day, Donald was making dinner in her basement suite when she noticed the water had been shut off. She went outside and saw that the trench that had been dug had started filling with water.
Within 45 minutes, sewage water started to pour into her basement suite. Before long the water was spilling from her bathtub and toilet.
"My daughter was hysterical," said Donald, who also had two cats in the suite that was rapidly filling with water. "We were both wading through sewage trying to get her most important things packed up as fast as possible."
Fearing electrocution as the water approached the electrical outlets, she and her daughter were forced to vacate the suite.
Stacey Raftus, communications officer with the RDNO, said the issue that caused the sewage backup was that an existing end cap on the water main near the excavation broke.
"Any potential liability at this point is unclear," Raftus said one week after the incident took place.
"Through contract, the RDNO requires contractors to carry General Liability Insurance specific to the type of construction, as well as indemnify the RDNO for their actions. The RDNO, through the Municipal Insurance Association, carries its own insurance," Raftus added.
Kelowna-based contractor Bennett Contracting Ltd. was doing the work. A spokesperson for the company told The Morning Star Thursday that "we don't know exactly what caused" the break, "and we won't know until the insurance companies have figured it out."
The spokesperson said Bennett Contracting paid for four nights in a hotel for Donald until its insurance company said "we can't pay anymore."
Donald said she was assured by the company that her expenses would be covered, but was then told she would need to go through her own insurance. However, after years of paying for renters' insurance, and pressed by the affordability crisis, she had discontinued her renters' insurance prior to the incident. That means with most of her and her daughters' possessions destroyed, she has no coverage to fall back on.
Donald said she understands that rental insurance was required in order to recoup her losses, and says she'll always have it in the future. But it's the system that requires rental insurance in the first place that she believes is unconscionable.
"Imagine how devastating that would feel to be told that an event, which literally changed your life in a moment, which a large construction company and the City of Vernon are 100 per cent culpable for, which effectively made a single mother and her 14 year old daughter homeless, would not be covered because you did not have rental insurance."
She's asked around and found that no one in her fourplex has rental insurance. She said its one of the first expenses that many people she knows have cut when trying to save money to get by.
Donald said something needs to be done about a system that lets culpable contractors off the hook, or else forces an added cost onto renters who are already paying out the nose amid a short rental supply.
"The expectation is that if they're doing work in your neighbourhood, you better have insurance and expect damages. That's a terrible expectation to set."
Donald hopes a full investigation will be launched into construction taking place in the area.
She said she believes construction companies aren't held accountable even if they are liable for a mistake, adding they aren't incentivized to take their time and ensure a job is done properly.
"The faster they do that job, the more that they make off of it."
She's been advised to sue the contractor, but that doesn't solve her immediate problem of having a place to live. And with rental prices in the area far exceeding the $1,640 per month she was paying on 35th Street, she believes her only option is to leave the Okanagan.
"My daughter and I deserve better than this."
Donald's cousin has set up a GoFundMe campaign for anyone who would like to donate.
