The processes of trying getting our house addition approved when the next of five building inspectors disagrees with the previous one.

April 19, 2024

Scott, can we please have a meeting at the Bayham office where we can go through the past building inspectors requests so that I can understand what they wanted and how we can resolve any issues to get the apartment approved. My original ideas was to be like my Amish friends in Aylmer such a David Stoll with only solar electricity and this may have confused the various inspectors.

I am 75 years old and am finding it very difficult to continue working full time on the farm, work on finishing the house addition and to keep financially stable because the many building inspectors each had differing ideas as to what is needed to approve the apartment for a farm worker. I did all the requested additions and changes for each inspector only to be told by Shane the approval that was granted is no longer valid so at the moment I am unable to have a farm worker in that apartment.

I'd like to get the apartment approved but am very wary of any verbal suggestions by a building inspector as experience has taught me that any suggestions may be changed by the next inspector.

Money is also an issue having spent over $250,000 so far and the previous approval has been revoked and now we are without a farm worker in the apartment.

With all the various Building inspectors each had different ideas as to their understanding of the safety concerns and at this point am not able to proceed not knowing how each inspector made their decisions and I am also unable to read and comprehend the building codes as they are far too complex. I have had to rely on each building inspector to understand their interpretation of the codes which has left me in a mess since each inspector does not agree with one another and then they disagree with the previous inspector.

During the course of doing various renovations to my properties in Toronto, Port Burwell and Straffordville I have enjoyed good relations with the building inspectors. Some have even came over in their lunchtime to help with a particularly difficult code or to help me understand the codes and suggest ways to satisfy the codes. Bill Lifton, Chris Peck and Paul Hillenaar have been particularly helpful and always explained their reasoning for their desired building requirements.

Unfortunately I cannot say this about Shane Hughes who likes to remind me of his power as a building inspector that he can at any point condemn what I have done and hire a contractor to demolish or rebuild according to his interpretations of the codes. This attitude will make people ignore the building department and codes and certainly makes me regret having applied for a building permit. He has never bothered to explain anything to me but instead just demands that his requests are met.

For example: this is a n email sent to me from Shane :

“The hole in the fire separation I requested to be filled with mineral wool, or equivalent, is to be completed. This is non-negotiable and to be completed as soon as possible.”

I asked for him to explain the reasons for this demand as I felt that I thought that Mineral wool was not really suitable since we do have mice and they like to nest in insulation material along with their accumulated bedding which is very combustible. I had suggested that leaving it open would be better since the mice do not like open spaces. He reply was that no discussion or explanation is possible.

I farm in Bayham township and about five years ago built an extension to our farm house for a workshop with an apartment on the second floor above by going through the proper channels at the Bayham office . The idea seemed at the time to have many merits. We could offer accommodation farm help and in the workshop I would have a decent place to do machine shop work and woodworking for the farm equipment repair and construction. This idea unfortunately occurred just before I was diagnosed with leukemia which doctors determined that I would not survive. While I was still living I decided to continue building my extension to the house and build a pole barn as well to house my machinery for the farm., During the course of a year I contracted plumbers, electricians and builders while in my hospital room with my computer and phone from Victoria hospital in London and later at the Princess Margaret hospital in Toronto.

The process of constructing the house addition at 7363 Coyle rd, straffordville

1) In about 2018 The building inspector for Bayham was Bill Knifton who was good to work with and was frequently able to make good suggestions, answer all of my questions and suggest solutions. We initiated the process of building the addition to our house with contractors for the framing, electrical and plumbing. Things went very well but the work on the addition dried up as I was no longer able to physically work due to my cancer diagnosis or the financial costs of hiring contractors to finish work until January 2023.

The plans were drawn up by a professional and approved by Bayham Township. I feel that Bill Knifton felt that this was an extension to the house and did not need an air exchanger since everything was open and connected to the house. He insisted on the open door to the workshop from the house so I had a set of steps to install and had done some preliminary work to have a walkway to the shop.

2)After 5 years of recovery from the leukemia diagnosis and a stem cell transplant I was finally able to continue the house extension in early 2023 but still very weak.

3)Most of the physical structure had been completed. Unfortunately Bill Knifton decided to retire and Chris Peck took over just as I was beginning continue the work myself.

4) About January 2023 Chris looked the situation in the house extension and made many good suggestions. Chris thought that there was no need to have the house connected to the workshop so I did not connect it to the house as Bill Knifton had wanted.

5)The original plan had the staircase from the second floor open to the workshop and the north door was also to be used as a exit to the workshop.

Chris felt there was no need to have the ceiling shop dry walled with 5/8's fire rated drywall if we dry walled the staircase that came down from the apartment on the second floor with a drywall enclosure on the inside as well as a firewall 5/8ths drywall on the outside of the staircase. He felt that with the fire alarm system which is connected to the house, apartment and workshop, the firewall drywall on the staircase and solid commercial floor there was no need to put dry wall on the 10 ft ceiling of the workshop. He also wanted the walls of the workshop insulated and covered with Plastic which was odd since we rarely use heat in the workshop preferring to work without heat but we put in the insulation and put the vapour barrier on to get his approval. We also put a few more sheets of drywall on around the wood stove as his request but which also rarely gets used and may get removed as we will go to a outdoor furnace.

6)Chris Peck did take exception to the insulated chimney pipe which needed to be extended above the roof line which I did and got his approval, also the kitchen sink drain plumbing was fixed and the vent on the hot water tank needed to be extended to the floor and all doors needed to be put on which was done. I have since re-throught the pressure release valve on the evacuated tube hot water tank hose to be put into the washing machine drain to avoid water on the floor.

7)Chris also said I needed to lower the main door to the workshop which was made to allow the entrance of the forklift to the workshop so I lowered it so the fork lift is no longer able to access the workshop which makes life difficult to move heavy equipment in the workshop.

8)The original plans called for an entrance to the house with a door to the rear bedroom of the house and in the process it was deemed no longer necessary by the current inspector and was approved by the inspector at the time.

9)There is no bedroom or sitting area in the workshop so I presumed it did not need an air ex-changer although I had thought we may need an air exchanger for the second floor apartment since it now had no opening to the rest of the house. There is also the fact that the windows are open during the months of April, May, June, July, August, September and October so there is no need for an air exchanger for most of the year but knowing it is required just like everything else I would do it. An air exchanger has been researched, the numbers verified and I just need an approval and perhaps guidance from the current building department official. This may have been an oversight on all of our parts and got forgotten in the hurry to get the building approved as inspectors such as Chris were suddenly replaced by Paul Hillenaar again. I believe that the original plans did not call for a air exchanger since it was to be connected to the house. Chris Peck did however sign the apartment was OK to Occupy.

10)About April 2023: Chris Peck did the final inspection and said the apartment on the second floor was OK to occupy and we allowed a farm worker to assume residence and work for us. He did note that some of the mouldings where not installed.

11)Next we then had Paul Hillenaar as the Bayham building inspector for a month or so who was very helpful and encouraged me to build a small apartment in the north barn for another farm worker. His many suggestions were very helpful but unfortunately before long he also informed me that he was suddenly no longer hired by Bayham and that I was on my own with Building inspectors from Malahide under Scott Southerland.

12)Now I do not know what to do after five or six different building inspectors each with very different requests. Things like the sewage system which had been previously found to compliant, suddenly there was no record it it having been officially passed. This again took a long time and frustration but has since passed inspection at the bureaucratic level I believe.

13)With Paul Hillenaar suddenly leaving, Paul Scott Sutherland came over to review the situation in the north barn apartment and I felt that he would be good to work with but this changed suddenly when Shane Hughes working under Scott Sutherland visited. He told me that I should have hired a contractor and he decided that there was many things that did not meet specifications in the previously “OK to occupy” apartment above the workshop and he had the authority to have contractors come in and change things at my expense and that I should not have waited 5 years to work on the project. He had no idea of my illness I had undergone nor the time it took to recover from the leukemia and a stem cell transplant, nor the year in hospital nor the lack of finances after having to hire our a lot of work on the farm during my illness since I was incapable of working for a couple of years while in recovery.

I felt that Shane Hughes from Malahide gave me the impression that he had no experience, was not interested in finding solutions but was only concerned with the codes and numbers and asserting his authority and power to demand things be done by another contractor. Unfortunately I am not impressed with this attitude nor ability to be helpful which was very different from the many very helpful inspectors that preceded him.

14 ) I showed Shane Hughes the apartment in the house addition at his requests and his assessment really upset and depressed me by again impressing on me with his authority and how he has the authority to get things removed from the apartment in the house addition at my expense, such as the Evacuated tube system which he wanted removed as it was not at the moment functional since at the moment since I took out the evacuated tubes for the winter. Our hot water for our house and apartment comes in the winter from our cook stove in the house in the winter or from our large electrical hot water heater. The evacuated tube system is used in the summer which was not functional at this time since for the winter I remove the tubes. We also do have a functioning large water heater that is used to heat hot water for the house and apartment which I showed Shane. Now I do not want to activate the evacuated tube hot water system since if there is no one using the hot water the system will get too hot and destroy the evacuated tubes. Shane also wanted the numbers from our insulated stove pipe on the building which had already been inspected by Chris Peck, and the ceiling of the shop was to be dry-walled with 5/8 fire-rated drywall. There was no discussion possible despite previous inspectors had approved for the insulated stove pipe. Shane's approach is not the way to encourage good relations and good safety practices and only encourages people to make changes without informing the Building inspectors nor be able to get informed opinions from experienced building inspectors. If Shane spent time telling me why certain things are done or quoting a building code then I would feel much better dealing with him.

15)Many of the regulations in the building codes rely on the building inspectors understanding of the safety and engineering but with Shane Hughes interpretations seem very counter to our goals of lessening our fossil fuel dependence. With all of the emphasis on store bought certified items that dictate use of electricity, such as air ex-changers, bathroom ceiling fans, certified electrical appliances, stoves and all else. There is little chance on reducing our dependence on any form or energy. All of this could easily be designed and built by myself without purchasing store bought items if an inspector knew what the requirements are. I have built buildings, built and designed farm machinery,designed planes and built them, supervised construction of them, designed and fabricated wing spars in carbon for our aircraft and served as test pilot for them. All I need is someone who had a good understanding of the processes of the various aspects of the building code and requirements to be met rather than just numbers stamped on an piece of fossil fuel derived hardware at my great expense. The other inspectors such as Bill Knifton did have an understanding of this and made suggestions based on their experience and engineering. I also decided to opt for a non electrical propane heater since many times in the winter we have no electricity for many days and if things continue this way we may have to learn to life without electricity.

16)When I started farming I wanted to be self sufficient , organic and free from fossil fuels much lilke my Amish friends but as I go into the future of farming and regulations they all unfortunately point to the more use of fossil fuels.

There is also a growing use of the internet for everything associated with the farm. Getting emails is now very difficult for me since the amount of Spam is unbelievable. I have had to change my email a few times because of fraudulent activity. On line fraudulent activities are common such as our bank accounts which were hacked and I lost a lot of money from fraudulent access to my account. Our emails have also been compromised and now I spend a lot of time going through my spam accounts looking for important notices from government agencies. The internet service is also unreliable and slow using the Eastlink phone lines. Malahide building inspections with Scott Sutherland have informed me that all building inspection services are now accessed by a computer program but I have not been able to access it but luckily Scot does respond to my emails when the internet is working.

The tremendous amount of things required in the building inspections by code alone only promotes more use of energy which defeats our need to reduce fossil fuels.

I have spent over $250,000 on trying to get these building approved and feel the differing building inspectors have caused me untold anxieties and more than $50,000 in excess expenses, loss of my farm help and with little progress being made towards getting the apartments approved.

The loss farm workers from the occupying the apartment has hurt us and I am having to work full time on the farm at 75 years old to keep the farm barely afloat.

I am now in such a state that I distrust the building inspectors and their decisions and doubt that what they say gets actually recorded so going forward I would like to have a written agreement rather than a verbal confirmation that certain things will pass inspection if done.

Mat redsell