“I have not seen this, it’s out of the norm.” 

That is how Weyburn City Manager Mathew Warren described a situation that was before the City Council Monday night. 

The whole thing dates back to July 1964, when the owner of a property applied to build a garage on what they thought was their lot. The permits were approved, the work inspected, and everything went off without a hitch, until last year. It was then that a survey noticed the garage had been built one lot over from where it was. Everything for a series of lots was one over from where they should have been.  

The situation came to light last summer, Warren explained.  

“Back on July 17th, we actually passed a motion to sell a property to a landowner for future expansion they want to do on their property,” Warren said. However, after the original motion was passed, it was discovered the property was already in use by the landowner, as the garage had been built there decades earlier.  

Further review of the situation was undertaken, and it was determined the owner of the property believed they owned, and had built, on lots 11, 12, and 13. They had actually been building on lots 12, 13 and 14, with everything signed off by the city administration of the day.  

When the proposal came before the council in July of last year to purchase lot 14, it was discovered they had already built on the property. This meant a motion of council was needed to remedy the situation. This was done by cancelling the initial sale from July of last year and transferring the ownership of lot 14 to the landowner. He then transferred the ownership of lot 11 to his neighbour. 

“It’s our job as administration to review what’s in front of us, provide those recommendations to council, and have them provide their motion moving forward,” Warren said. “The decision they (the council) made was to transfer the land, which in our review as administration is the right decision to move forward with because it does provide this person with the proper lots of where their properties are located, and also provides them an opportunity for them to do any future expansion they want to do on that site moving forward.” 

Warren acknowledged the situation was a weird one, but they were happy to get it all figured out, including the motion from the council to put things back to normal.