Residents are calling on the City of Ottawa to hire more building inspectors so neighbours don’t have to endure what one called “construction horror stories” next door, but staff say there simply aren’t any qualified experts to recruit.

On Wednesday, Cheryl Parrott of the Hintonburg Community Association appeared before the city’s planning committee, which oversees building code services.

She showed one photo of a neighbour’s driveway that had been dug away during excavation work next door and had construction fencing sitting on it. Another neighbour had rainwater draining onto their property because the new building covers most of the lot, leaving nowhere else for the water to go.
“Why should a neighbour have to hire a structural engineer when the city’s allowed a developer to undercut their property?” asked Parrott. “Why should a neighbour have to fight so hard to have the city weigh in on potential building code disasters with weekly emails and phone calls for months and months?” 

Councillors agreed it was unacceptable.

“In the last year and a half, things seem to have gotten much, much worse,” said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, who demanded quicker response when bad builders cause problems.

The planning committee was discussing its portion of the City of Ottawa’s draft 2022 budget, which includes $29 million in operating costs for the building code services branch.

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