Editor:
I read Tom Zytaruk’s article in the Surrey Now-Leader on the subject of illegal construction in Surrey: Battling bad builds. It was an outstanding article.
We had lived with this nightmare for almost three years. The owners built an illegal addition to a single two-storey family house without building permits, violating two stop work orders, continuing to build even after Surrey bylaw officers showed to issue them warnings. When they left, they resumed building this addition to the back of their house, almost reaching the back yard of our fence.
We were relentless and kept phoning Surrey bylaws, taking photos of the structure and documenting everything.
Finally B.C. Supreme Court took the owners to court, and they were ordered to get a demolition permit and ordered to finally tear it down, which they did or face thousands of fines and potential jail time.
It was exhausting to continue to fight them. But at the end of the day we got our privacy and sanity back.
Linda Ypenburg, Surrey
