A homeowner has had his unsightly and unsafe junkyard-style property inspected eight times and enjoyed three extensions on a deadline to clean it up.

Sam Tsai’s single-family home at 4640 Carter Drive in the Odlin area attracted the attention of the City of Richmond’s bylaws department in May of this year.

Since then, bylaw officers, Richmond Fire-Rescue inspectors and buildings officers have been to and from the home a total of eight times, urging and ordering the occupant — Tsai’s father — to bring the yard up to a safe level.

During one of the inspections, fire-rescue referred to the property — which has stack and stacks of household items, plywood, garbage, paint cans, boxes, plastics, toys, bikes and scraps stored under unauthorized building structures — as having a large “accumulation of flammable and combustible materials.”

After contacting the homeowner at his Alberta address, minimal efforts were made over the summer to comply with the city’s clean-up order.

As a result, staff recommended Monday to city council that a contractor be brought in at a cost of $11,000, which will be recovered by the property owner.

However, a third and final extension — this time to January 15 — was given to Tsai before the disposal company moves in to do the job for him.