Edmonton landlord charged with breaking and entering at apartment building days before Christmastime evacuation

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An Edmonton landlord was criminally charged with breaking and entering an apartment unit he was renting out shortly before the city used unprecedented emergency powers to evacuate the building in December for apparent safety issues, displacing residents days before Christmas.

Court records show the landlord, Van Vuong, faces two charges for incidents on Dec. 19 and 20 surrounding a rental unit in the apartments at 10603 107 Ave. NW, the building where security guard Harshandeep Singh was fatally shot in December. On Dec. 20, the City of Edmonton gave building residents three days’ notice to leave, citing apparent “serious safety issues,” exercising an extraordinary emergency power never before used to shut down a rental building in Edmonton. More than 60 people, including 25 children, were forced to leave their homes on Dec. 23 with just three days’ notice. The building has a long history of health and safety violations.

The landlord is facing a criminal charge for mischief — obstructing the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of a property — on Dec. 19, and breaking and entering and committing an indictable offence, mischief, on Dec. 20. Both charges are related to a single rental unit.

Vuong denies he’s guilty of breaking and entering. Charges have not been tested in court.

“They are wrong and I’m going to have my lawyer (respond),” he told Postmedia in a brief phone call Friday. “We evicted the people.”

Asked what else is wrong and unsafe in the building, he said “There is nothing wrong,” and hung up.

This newspaper twice asked the Edmonton Police Service if Vuong is facing criminal charges. A spokesperson first directed this newspaper to contact the city instead. Asked again Thursday if Vuong is facing a charge related to 10603 107 Ave, spokesperson Brooke Timpson responded in an email: “I can confirm that no charges were laid that are related to the closure order at this time.”

By Thursday, the entrance to the 107 Avenue apartment building was boarded up, blocked off with large white planks of wood nailed into place. Businesses on the street level were open, unaffected by the evacuation order.

‘The landlord just used our bathroom’: more renters say landlord entered without permission

Two former tenants say Vuong went into their homes without permission last year.

Kenia (Luna) Salmeron, who lived in the apartment building until it was evacuated, said Vuong entered her suite without asking or any notification at the end of October.

She let the maintenance man in, whom she knows, and left briefly to visit a neighbour. When she came back, her teenager told her about their unexpected visitor.

“I had gone upstairs to run a piece of cake to my friend — it was literally a total of maybe five minutes. I came back down, and my daughter was like, ‘Mom, the landlord just used our bathroom,’ ” she told Postmedia in a Friday interview.

Salmeron was shocked.

“Why is he walking in the apartment at all, and why didn’t he ask me for permission to use my bathroom?” she said. “That was very unprofessional, because why is my landlord walking into my place without my knowledge and going straight to my bathroom and using my bathroom?”

Another former resident of the 107 Ave building, Jess Strong, said the landlord went into her home multiple times without asking or giving the required notification. She moved out shortly before the evacuation.

She remembers being in the living room with her partner last summer when Vuong walked in unannounced. He left quickly after they yelled at him to get out, saying he did not have permission to enter.

In October, she said the landlord went into her unit unannounced while she was outside waiting for pest control. Her friend was using her washroom at the time, and told her the landlord came inside and took pictures of her suite.

“I was angry and shocked that he thought he was allowed to do that whenever he wanted,” she told Postmedia on Facebook messenger.?“It is the main reason we tried to make sure someone was always home. We even had a dog at the time and it didn’t make him think twice.”

“I always felt unsafe there. We moved in, in mid March and we knew within two weeks that it was going to be a building to watch our backs.”

Unprecedented use of emergency powers

The City of Edmonton exercised powers in section 551 of the Municipal Government Act to close the building. This is the first time the municipality has used this power to evacuate a rental apartment building, though it has been used for other businesses in the past, according to the city.

To date, the city remains quiet about what specific problems created safety risks so serious they required such an extreme, unprecedented measure on short notice days before Christmas.

“This is the first time the city has used this section of the MGA for the emergency closure of a residential building,” spokesperson Tania Gonzalez wrote Friday. “City administration and our partners have been working extensively with the property owner to address issues at the property. The City explored all possible options for remedying safety concerns before displacing residents. Despite efforts to resolve the concerns, the escalating safety risks required immediate actions to protect the residents.”

University of Ottawa law professor Stéphane ?mard-Chabot, who has expertise in municipal law and was a city councillor in Ottawa, said urgent evictions do happen occasionally but they are uncommon. He thinks the city should be open and clear with residents and the public about the specific safety problems.

“These actions and the lack of transparency certainly raise a number of questions,” he said. “It’s usually fairly obvious why these measures are being taken — it’s usually because there’s an immediate threat to people’s life or safety, and the form of that threat is normally very clearly communicated. That is not happening so far in this case, and that is a concern.”

“One would expect a high level of justification in a case like this. ”

He can’t think of other provinces in Canada that give such broad emergency powers to municipalities.

Renters in the building who had nothing to do with the safety risks could have a legal case against the city for being forced out of their home they have a right to be in, he said.

Waiting for home

Salmeron has since found a new permanent home. She reached out to Homeward Trust for help after the December shooting, and was already planning to leave when the evacuation order came down.

But other residents are still waiting to find out where they will go and when they can get the belongings they left behind. Some have been living in hotel rooms since the Dec. 23 eviction.

Audrey Fredrick is one resident who has been living in a hotel since Dec. 23. She doesn’t know when she will get a permananet home or when she can go back to collect her belongings.

“I’m not happy where I’m at. I don’t think anybody really is,” she said. “They uprooted us, like we’re a herd of cattle. We don’t know where we’re going next.”

Her mental health is getting worse with the stress of the move.

“It was a dangerous building, but you know, that was our home, and there’s a housing crisis.”

lboothby@postmedia.com

@laurby