For years now, Thelma Mazzei and dozens of other seniors in the South Okanagan have been living a condo owner’s nightmare.
Park Place, a condominium complex in Oliver, was found to contain cracks in the floors and walls following a minor earthquake in 2011. Two years later, troubling concerns raised in an engineer’s report led to the entire building being evacuated.
Since then, some of Mazzei’s neighbours have literally died waiting to return home, and most of the others have given up hope.
“In all my life, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me,” Mazzei told CTV News.
When residents left in 2013, on the advice of their strata, they hoped insurance would pay for the upgrades necessary to allow them back home. So far, that hasn’t been the case.
Now, some condo owners are haunted by the growing consensus that the rush to move out was a mistake.
“It really takes its toll, mentally and physically,” said former Park Place resident Joyce Welsh. “You just have nothing.”
Meanwhile, some continue to pay mortgages for homes they can’t live in.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Kent Molgat
