The Greater Vancouver Food Bank is suing a property inspector that it hired last year to assess a site that it was considering leasing.
The food bank wound up leasing the property and had to pay $56,081.55 to level the floor and fix deficiencies, it alleged in the notice of civil claim filed at BC Supreme Court. It also had to endure $62,507.08 in delay costs associated with continuing operations at a separate leased location until the new property was sufficiently repaired to enable the food bank to move there, it said.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Contractor Conall Barr and his Conall Barr Home Inspections Ltd. (CBHI) were hired on Feb. 11, 2023, to inspect what is now the food bank's home, at 3454 Lougheed Highway in Vancouver, the food bank alleged.
It claimed that Barr's report "did not identify any noteworthy or significant deficiency in the warehouse floor or loading dock and receiving area floor."
The report simply noted that the warehouse floor was "concrete. Patching noted. Common hair line cracks noted," the food bank alleged.
"In carrying on the inspection and in making the report, CBHI and Barr were guilty of breaches of the contract terms and conditions and were negligent," the food bank wrote in its lawsuit.
It said Barr failed to observe or to report the deficiency that the floor was "significantly sloped, meaning it was several inches from level over a substantial area," according to the food bank.
Barr, it alleged, noted that "the floor did not need repair to be fit for its intended purpose," which was not true, according to the food bank.
He also did not take a sample of the floor, the food bank said.
The food bank is seeking general and special damages plus interest.
Barr has yet to file a response to the notice of civil claim.
"I don't have anything to say right now," he told BIV, when contacted to see if he had a response to the allegations.
