DICK PETTET (left) and Robbie Robinson have ‘‘gone from the frying pan into the fire.” On New Year's
Eve their houseboat was destroyed by fire during the Lynnwood Marina blaze. In February they rented a
North Vancouver City suite and received a tenancy termination notice several weeks later. ‘The building is

being renovated aad resold as strata-title property.

Uniucky duo hopping mad
over N. Van suite eviction

TWO MEN who lost everything when a New Year’s Eve
fire destroyed their 46-foot house cruiser moored at
Lynnwood Marina are searching for a third home in as
many months after being forced to move from a North
Vancouver apartment to make way for new owners.

_ “We've gone from the frying
pan into the fire,’’ said Dick Pet-
tet.

Harbour Castle, the 15-storey,
85-unit tower they moved into in
February, had been owned by
Stephen Sander’s Hollyburn
Properties. The West Vancouver
multi-millionaire announced in
December that he would give the
rental real estate revenue gener-
ated by 23 of his apartment
blocks to a newly-founded Third
World charity.

Pettet and friend Robbie
Robinson had placed a security
deposit for a Harbour Castle
suite on Jan. 9. They moved in
Feb. 6.

On Feb. 19, they received a let-
ter dated Feb. 12 from Hollyburn
Properties announcing the recent
sale of the building and were of-
fered the option to purchase their
sixth-floor suite for $155,100.
Written reply to the offer was to
have been returned by Feb. 15.

Pettet claims that when the
pair applied for the suite in
January, they were not informed
that the building was being sold
and that they might be faced with

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

moving out in the near future.

Said Pettet, ‘‘For want of a
dollar, the company advertised
the apartment for rent with full
knowledge that we would be ask-
ed to leave.”

A termination notice for their
suite was issued Feb. 28. Pettet
and Robinson say they'll move
out by the end of March.

In the meantime they've initi-
ated civil court action in an at-
tempt to recover $2,620.50, losses
allegedly incurred as a result of
the suite sale.

Said Pettet, “If we hadn't
moved in there, we'd have our
own furniture, we'd be settled
and the whole thing.”

But said Hollyburn spokesman
Roger Andrews, **They were told
the building was being sold. They
were told that if they moved in
the building was being sold and
that it was at their own risk. At
that point in time we didn't know
what the new owner was going to
do with it, which is the truth.

NEWS photo Terry Peters

Real estate transactions are very
fast. They moved in on good
faith on a month-io-month
tenancy agreement. The tenancy
agreement was terminated in due
course, in legal fashion —
they’ve got nothing to complain
about.”’

Harbour Castle was sold at the
beginning of January to King
Yale Development, ‘‘a shadow
company,’’ according to An-
drews. ‘‘Who owns King Yale,
I’m not at liberty to tell you,’’ he
said.

Andrews said Harbour Castle
was not among the buildings
owned by Sander that are slated
to be transferred over to charity.

‘We sold this building to raise
the cash to buy two more build-
ings. It’s a simple business trans-
action,”’ he said.

Andrews added that one of the
two buildings to be bought might
be attached to the charitable
fund. The other building will go
to Sander's family estate.

Said North Vancouver City
Ald. Bill Bell of the tenancy ter-
minations facing Harbour Castle
tenants, ‘‘The whole process is
obscene. The building was built
strata, so our laws covering strata
conversion do not apply. Bur it's
completely uncalled for. I’m very
upset that a company would do
this at this time when there’s no
place for these people to go."*

3 - Sunday, March 11, 1990 - North Shore News

injured

girl’s

father to sue
N. Vancouver

School

Board

A NORTH Vancouver parent whose daughter received
multiple facial injuries when she fell off a piece of
playground equipment from a local school last year says he
plans to take legal action against the North Vancouver
District 44 School Board (NVSB) over the incident.

Norm Duplissie added that he is
amazed an investigation by the
schoo! board’s playground com-
mittee found there was no reason
to remove the apparatus, a cable-
tightrope, from any other North
Vancouver schools, even though it
was removed from Lynn Valley
Elementary School, the site of the
accident.

Duplissie’s daughter, who was
six years old at the time of the ac-
cident, fell off the cable-tighirope
last June.

The girl, who was unconscious
for a few minutes after the inci-
dent, fell head-first into gravel and
dirt below the playground equip-
ment, ripping her nose away from
her upper lip, cutting her forehead
open, smashing one of her teeth
through her lip and bruising her
face.

The cable-tightrope was remov-
ed from Lynn Valley Elementary
School the next day, following
complaints from Duplissie.

But similar pieces of equipment
are still in place at other North
Vancouver schools, including
Norgate Elementary School, where
Duplissie’s daughier is currently a
student.

School District 44 superintend-
ent of schools Dr. Robin Brayne
said an investigation by the
board’s playground committee has
found that the cable-tightrepe
meets all neceisary safety
guidelines,

He added that the apparatus will
not be removed from other
schools, something uplissie had
asked the board to do.

In a letter to Duplissie lase July,
Brayne said the principal of Lynn
Valley Elementary School ‘‘was

- reluctant to see it (cable-tightrope)

removed since it was safely en-
joyed by children...(buv) it was
probably due for replacement in
any case.”’

Duplissie said he only found out
about the school board’s decision
to keep the cable-tightrope in place
at other North Vancouver schools
when informed about it by the
News.

“I’m very surprised that they
would take that position. ! think
it’s just totally ignorant of them
(NVSB) not to inform me of the
decision,"' said Duplissie.

By SURJ RATTAN
News Reporter

NO

SCHOOL District 44 superintend-
ent Dr. Robin Brayne ...cable-
tightrope meets safety standards.

**That (cable-tightrope) is some-
thing that should definitely be
zemoved,” he said. “It’s a
super dangerous piece of equip-
ment. We're just fortunate that
our littl daughter wasn’t kill-
ed...she’s still scarred today.”’

Duplissie added that his daugh-
ter, who is now seven years old,
will have to undergo a second
plastic surgery operation to repair
the damage done to her face.

He also claimed that other
children have fallen off the cable-
tightrope, although they have not
been injured. -

He added that he plans to take
the NVSB to court over the inci-
dent.

**We haven't dropped it. My lit-
tle girl will require plastic surgery
again. I’m going to pursue this
legally with the school board,”
said Duplissie.

Duplissie, who has retained a
lawyer, said he would have
dismissed the idea of taking legal
action against the school board if
it had ‘‘listened to our concerns
and removed the apparatus.”*

Page 6 gets new look

NORTH SHORE News readers will find a new took to the

newspaper’s editorial page today.

The change, which will provide
more space for editorial comment,
Letters of the Day and News
Quotes of the Week, is just one of
a number of planned design

upgrades aimed at keeping the
North Shore News an interesting
and vital Norit Shore resource
both for its readership and its ad-

vertisers.

Bob Hunter
Lifestyles

Sunday through Tuesday,
mostly cloudy with showers.
Highs near 39°C.

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