The city is finally getting serious about cleaning up a derelict, rat-infested house on Riverdale Ave., since the owner won’t.

After years of issuing property orders that were ignored, city officials will next week forcibly enter 185 Riverdale, which we’ve been reporting on, to determine what needs to be done.

Building code legislation allows for a “warrantless entry” of properties that are not occupied as a residence when the owner refuses to act on cleanup orders, said Joe Magalhaes, an acting manager of Municipal Licensing and Standards.

One obstacle is that the city can’t find the owner or get permission from her to enter, but city lawyers say the situation meets requirements to go in without first obtaining a warrant, said Magalhaes.

This will allow officials to figure out how to bring the house into compliance with property standards, while a pest-control firm gets started on exterminating vermin, raccoons and squirrels found inside, he said.

Neighbours have been complaining to the city for years, but the last straw was when the house on the other side of the semi-detached property was invaded by rats that gnawed through the common wall between them.

Fed up with the city’s inability to do anything about it, someone on the street put up a large plywood sign in front of the property that said: “This house has rats!”

The owner, Yan Szeto, allowed the house to crumble long before she moved out several years ago. Neighbours say she regularly shows up with bags of stuff that she takes inside the house, which is jammed full of hoarded junk.

They have tried talking to her but say she scuttles away, including on Monday night, when a resident followed her around the neighbourhood before taking a photo of her in a grocery store, which was provided to us.

Magalhaes said a junk removal company was brought in last week to clean up the exterior of the property, including the litter-strewn porch and yard, and will soon start on the interior.

Toronto Water has also baited the sanitary sewers in the area, in case rats are gaining access to the house through sewer pipes and toilets, he said.

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