Image: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

'The Stench is Bad'

Kamloops mobile home park resident hits roadblock in quest to see neighbour’s unsightly property dealt with

Aug 5, 2025 | 5:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops woman living in a mobile home park along Ord Road says she’s hit a wall in her effort to get her neighbour’s yard cleaned up. The property next to hers has been inundated with garbage and other items, and she claims the smell of it all has now attracted rats and poses a fire hazard.

The resident claims she’s made repeated calls to have the City of Kamloops Community Services Department or park management deal with the matter, but so far nothing has been done to clean it up.

The view from Julie Fowler’s living room should have picturesque hills in the distance, but lately it’s been obstructed by a large basketball hoop and backboard. Since moving to the Orchard Park Mobile Home Park on Ord Road, Fowler has spent a year-and-a-half surrounded by her neighbour’s accumulation of miscellaneous items and garbage.

“The stench is bad. Yeah. It’s a huge fire hazard. There are many flammable things. He’s set chainsaws right against my gas line,” Fowler told CFJC Today. “Nobody is concerned.”

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: Springing forward, one last time

11h ago

Question of the Week

Are you going to try one of the new e-scooter or e-bike rentals around Kamloops?

Mar 09, 2026

1000 WAYS TO HEAL

1000 WAYS TO HEAL: Two Spirit People

Mar 09, 2026

Between the items right next door and the smell, Fowler says it’s turned into a frustrating living situation with no end in sight.

“And then all the rats that we catch here. The rats are now eating the apples in the tree out there,” she adds.

Fowler says she has vocalized her concerns to park management — and the City of Kamloops — about what she feels is both a nuisance and a safety hazard.

“Right away, I had a concern about the mess in his yard. I contacted the manager, he refused to do anything, so then I contacted bylaw. They came but never finished their job and refused to come back,” said Fowler, “so then this tenant brought in more and more and more and more stuff.”

Property management declined an interview for this story but did say the issue has been the subject of a writeup. Meanwhile, Fowler is still trying to track down who is responsible for making sure the mess is cleaned up — whether that’s City of Kamloops Community Services, the fire department, property management or property ownership.

According to Will Beatty, the city’s manager of community services, the onus to address a health and safety concern of this nature would be on the property management and ownership.

“In B.C., anybody who owns a modular home park is bound by the Modular Home Tenancy Act,” Beatty explains. “If you’re buying a modular-style home and placing it on a pad that somebody owns, you would enter into a tenancy agreement. And part of that tenancy agreement would have some health and safety standards of the site itself and the responsibility would be on the main parcel property owner to enforce those actions through park rules or boundaries that are set in that tenancy agreement.”

Beatty adds that the city’s Good Neighbour Bylaw was written with disputes between single-detached properties in mind, not multi-unit situations on one parcel of land.

“Really, (someone should) go to the (Residential Tenancy) Act. See what your rights and responsibilities are as a tenant. See what the rights and responsibilities are of the landlord. The landlord does have rights and responsibilities to take care of the property. And if they don’t take care of the property, I would file a Residential Tenancy Act dispute and allow the Tribunal to either offer administrative penalties or whatever is in the Act that is for the tenant itself,” adds Beatty.

Fowler’s frustration lies with the issue becoming a hot potato and the overall tenancy system. At the end of the day, she says she just wants to see the mess dealt with.

“It’s gross,” she says. “I like a clean environment. I’ve done a lot of work here and now I just have to put up with that.”