The owner of an 11-storey residential rental building in Langford that has sat mostly vacant for a year and a half since the city revoked the occupancy permit is suing the seller, builder, structural engineer and engineering firm, and the City of Langford for what they claim is negligence causing dangerous defects in the building.

Toronto-based Centurion Property Associates bought Danbrook One at 2766 Claude Rd. in late August 2019 and began renting the units.

Four months later, in mid-December 2019, Langford revoked the building’s occupancy permit and urged tenants to move out after an engineering report for the municipality confirmed serious safety concerns. At the time, 86 of 90 units were rented. Tenants were temporarily put up in hotels paid for by the city while they searched for new homes. Some struggled to find apartments at a similar price and remained in the building for two months after the occupancy permit was revoked.

Months before Centurion bought the building, a structural engineer who was not involved in the project raised concerns related to its seismic and structural integrity, in a formal complaint to the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists, according to Centurion’s civil claim. Leon Plett, a structural engineer and principal of RJC Engineers, also expressed concern that the project drawings might have been copied from an RJC project.

The building’s defects include deficiencies in the foundation, lateral system and gravity column, according to Centurion’s claim. They allege the parties involved in design and construction were aware of problems prior to the sale and that the issues “pose a danger to person or property.”

Keep reading in the Times Colonist

Check out more news below: