Ryan King and his partner wanted a simple rural lifestyle in the Okanagan. On a creek side property near Peachland, their tiny home was parked for years until he realized they couldn’t succeed against the regional district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lengthy dispute with the Central Okanagan Regional District ended with a settlement last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In exchange for dropping the bylaw dispute, which had escalated from tickets to court<\/a>, they moved away from the Central Okanagan entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I want to say I gave up, but I moved on to better things,” King told iNFOnews.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He spent more than five years building the tiny home, toiling for countless hours on the property and the trailer-bound home itself. Until around 2021, he had no issues. When Central Okanagan regional district bylaw officers came knocking, likely because of a single complaint, it started with tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It was $100 here and there, and I just said, ‘Take my money and leave me alone,'” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It became part of the cost of living, expecting a new ticket once every four months on average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bylaw fines weren’t enough to move King and his partner Lisa from the property, so the regional district escalated. First by putting a notice on their land title, then by taking them to court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “At the end of the day, you look at what they have in their bylaws, I don’t think I really had a fighting chance,” he said. “At that point I think it was just shy of five years fighting with the district and I was just at wit’s end. I was tired of it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before it went to a judge, the regional district offered King a settlement. If they leave the property before October 2025, the regional district will drop the legal challenge. So, they found another Southern Interior property and left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As much as it felt like a loss, having to sell my property and move away from home, given all the time and sweat equity I’ve put into the acreage, it’s not worth the battle anymore,” King said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though his dispute with the Regional District of the Central Okanagan is over, it’s impossible to find a property in BC where their tiny home will be permitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They aren’t alone among rural property owners who have attempted to live in tiny homes or RVs on their own property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rural property owners living in their RVs and tiny homes from the South Okanagan<\/a> to the North Thompson have faced losing battles<\/a> with regional governments for years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n