One Apartment Complex, Many Fires. And Finally, Demolition by the City

After several fires at an apartment building in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver’s chief building official says he’ll work to put in place tougher penalties for problem landlords.

Saul Schwebs said the city needs more power to demolish buildings that are public safety risks and is looking at jurisdictions like Surrey for ideas on how to strengthen fire safety bylaws.

The city may also consider increasing property taxes for landlords who fail to comply with building safety orders.

Schwebs made the comments during a press conference last Friday as city workers began a demolition of a rental apartment building at 414 E. 10th Ave.

The building had a serious fire on July 27, 2023, that displaced all 70 tenants. The building was damaged enough to make it unfit to occupy, but not enough for the city to order a demolition, Schwebs said. Fire investigators found that the fire was accidental and started when a tenant with hoarding problems left a candle unattended.

Several months before the July 2023 fire, city prosecutors had charged landlords Fu De Ren and Feng Yan with 20 fire safety violations after an inspection found numerous problems at the building. The city had also fined Ren for building violations in 2017 and again in 2020, according to court documents. In 2017 Ren was fined $750; in 2020, he was fined $13,000. In 2024, a judge fined Ren another $4,500 after he pleaded guilty to six out of 20 bylaw violation charges.

A Tyee investigation revealed that Ren and Yan’s problems with fire safety violations at rental buildings go back years. In 2009, a fire at an apartment building the couple owned in Burnaby killed one tenant and severely injured an eight-year-old boy. In 2013, another fire at the same building led to the building being demolished.

After the July 2023 fire at the 10th Avenue address, Ren and Yang failed to keep the building secured. Squatters frequently entered the building, and there were several more fires.

Despite more orders from the city to Ren and Yan to secure the building so people couldn’t get in, neighbours told The Tyee they continued to see squatters enter the property.

On Sept. 21, 2023, Ren was charged with three more municipal bylaw offences. His next court date — the fourth appearance related to the charges — is Thursday, according to Court Services Online.

On Aug. 6, there was yet another fire at 414 E. 10th. This time the damage was so severe that the city has stepped in to demolish the building.

Schwebs said city staff had spent a lot of time over the past few months trying to stabilize the building, but the owner had not done any work to repair it.

“It was left to rot,” he said.

On Friday, numerous rusted cars with broken windows and other water damage were sitting on the street, pulled out of the building’s parkade by demolition crews. The cars had been sitting in the building’s underground parking lot since the fire on July 27, 2023.

Schwebs declined to say whether the city would attempt to expropriate the property, but he said it’s unlikely the site will remain owned by Ren and Yan much longer. Court documents show that Vancity credit union, which had given Ren and Yan a mortgage in 2018, has started foreclosure proceedings.

Don Gardner lives across the alley from the apartment building. He called the city’s handling of it “a disaster.”

“We’ve been complaining to the city. We’ve written to the city, to the mayor, council, about the fact that there were squatters in here all the time,” he said. “It’s basically sat unprotected for a year. I have no understanding why that was allowed.”

The Tyee contacted Ren to ask for comment for this story, but he did not respond.