A Whitehorse resident who built a woodshed eight years ago is now on the hook for another building permit – or he will have to tear down the structure after a boondoggle with the city.

Nick Leenders, a resident of Blaker Place in the city’s south end, told the Star Tuesday about his situation and ongoing battle with the city.

“On Sept. 10, 2014, I went to the city to obtain a building permit for a woodshed as I have a wood gasification boiler for home heating purposes,” Leenders wrote in an email to the city last spring.

“I finished building the woodshed according to the plan I submitted on Sept. 14. I phoned the city on the 14th or the 17th to let them know the shed was ready to be inspected.

“I was asked if I had built it according to the plan I submitted. I was told, if so, they wouldn’t come out to be inspected. I thought, ‘OK, I’m good.’”

That was the last Leenders said he had heard about the woodshed from the city – until this spring.

He doesn’t know the name of the man he spoke to at the city, and since it was a phone call, there is no documentation or paper trail to rely on.

In 2021, Leenders said, he installed a new boiler system. He alleges there was no further communication from the city about the situation until a few months ago.

According to the documents he presented to the Star, Leenders was told last spring the city that no record of the woodshed’s installation and inspection could be found.

Without that documentation, city staff couldn’t approve the boiler installation. The associated cost was $170 for the new permit.

Leenders has been battling the city’s land and building services department ever since.

He said the original construction of the woodshed in 2014 cost him less than $1,000, including the $96.12 he paid for the building permit.

“If I have to pay another $170ish, the total paid to the city would exceed 25 per cent of the project,” he pointed out.

Leenders also presented a chain of emails between himself and city officials in the department.

In his opinion, he said, the reaction from Matthew Wilkinson, the city’s supervisor of building services, was not overly helpful.

In one email from Wilkinson to Leenders, he wrote, “The conversation you describe is not in keeping with department policy, nor is in line with the Building and Plumbing bylaw.

“Under Article 44, the owner is obligated to have stages or work inspected and approved.

“Further to this, it is prohibited under Article 38(4) to put a building into use without the required occupancy approval. Occupancy approvals can only be granted in writing,” Wilkinson wrote.

“Under Article 58 and 59, building officials are required to attend the site in order to administer the building and plumbing bylaw and are required to keep copies of documentation in regards to administering the bylaw.

“The building file indicates that construction was not completed in conformance with the building and plumbing bylaw. The construction is required to be approved prior to being used and is subject to an order of removal if not complete with the building and plumbing bylaw.”

A series of emails continued between the two men. At one point, Wilkinson told Leenders he had no idea who Leenders had spoken to at the office.

The administrative staff, Wilkinson said, had all been female for many years, so he has no clue of the identity of the man Leenders maintains he spoke to.

He told Leenders via the emails several times the only options are for him to purchase a new permit and go through the process, or to demolish the woodshed – which would also required a permit and going through a process.

Eventually, Wilkinson told Leenders “he was kicking a dead horse” on the situation.

He added, “You will receive no further response from me in regards to your disagreement with fulfilling your obligations as a landowner. The bylaw violation will remain on the property until addressed in compliance.”

Wilkinson did not reply to the Star’s request for further comment on the situation.

For the moment, the impasse remains between the parties.