A family is without a home after a man lost his life in an odd story out of North Glenmore.
An unidentified middle aged man died in July in his home at the Yaletown condos.
Coroner Barb McLintock confirms the body was not discovered for several days and that the death was eventually reported on July 23. It is not considered suspicious in nature.
By that time, the odour had begun affecting neighbours in nearby units, and there was contamination in the man's suite that spread to adjacent units.
Complex resident Ashley Carter and her family were affected by the tragic situation.
“This has been devastating for our family to go through,” says Carter. “Especially for my daughter, who doesn't have her room or toys or comfort anymore – and she starts school in September.”
Carter claims the body's decomposition left her apartment unliveable, and she was forced to take her family and go.
“The smell was coming through the floors.”
She and other tenants thought the smell was a sewer issue and were not initially concerned.
“I'm sick to my stomach because all this time I have thought it was sewer, but it wasn't,” Carter wrote on Facebook. “It was like this sweet, garbage smell.”
As it got worse, Carter called her landlord and asked for a plumber to be sent in.
Before the plumber could investigate, police in masks swarmed the apartment below and Carter was informed of the tragic reality.
She says the landlord put them in a hotel for the first night. And members of the Facebook group Mamas for Mamas came over and helped clean, but within five minutes the smell returned.
They are not supposed to live in the suite until restoration is done, but that will take weeks and the additional cost of a hotel or alternate living arrangements.
The family has been couch surfing at friend's homes and staying at campgrounds.
“My landlord won't give me the damage deposit back or anything like that,” says Carter. “(He) is claiming his insurance won't cover any of the unit damage and for that reason he is going to spend my money restoring the place.”
Carter has gone to the tenancy branch and was told to take the landlord to small claims court.
“I have everything in a storage unit I couldn't afford, but I had to put it in there. Everything stinks, everything smells,” says Carter.
“I don't have all this money to clean everything. We had to go wash all of our clothes (at a laundromat) ... I am pregnant on top of that. It has been really, really awful.”
Several other social media commenters confirmed the smell in the complex.
Carter adds finding a rental in the summer in Kelowna that is affordable and vacant is very difficult.
McLintock says contamination from decomposing bodies is an issue the Coroners Service often comes across, especially in summer months and that it can, in some cases, make homes unliveable.