‘We Bought a Funeral Home’ property plagued by drowning, calls to police, and $315K lawsuit

A former funeral home in Dresden that once drew the attention of TV viewers now has the attention of local law enforcement and the courts.

CK News Today has learned the property at 620 Cross Street, which is currently listed for sale at a price of about $1.88 million and is also being rented out on AirBnB, was the site of a drowning earlier this week and has been the subject of multiple calls to police in addition to being the subject of an ongoing civil suit.

Chatham-Kent police said emergency crews were called to an address on Cross Street in Dresden shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday for an unresponsive man in a swimming pool. The 20-year-old London man was later pronounced dead at the hospital and police said foul play was not suspected.

CK police also confirmed to CK News Today that the address where the man’s body was found was specifically, 620 Cross Street.

It was not the first time police have been called to the address recently, either.

CK police media officer Sergeant Lynette Rosina told CK News Today that officers had also received some allegations from the property owner about human trafficking taking place at the property. Those allegations were brought to police after the property owner had also made several calls to police requesting that officers physically remove some renters from the property.

Sgt. Rosina said police did not carry out the requests to remove the renters because officers “have no authority to evict or physically remove any renter from a place they have rented (including Airbnbs),” adding that the owner must follow the follow the Residential Tendency Act for evictions.

“We can ask the renters to leave on behalf of the owner, or stand by and keep the peace as they leave,” said Sgt. Rosina. “But [we] have no other authority than that.”

Sgt. Rosina also noted that as of Thursday morning, she was not aware of any ongoing human trafficking investigations at 620 Cross Street, despite the allegations from the property owner, which were made after the property owner was informed that police did not have the authority to physically remove the renters.

In addition to the drowning and human trafficking allegations at the property, the owners — Arryn Blumberg and Heather Blumberg — are also being sued by a construction company that was contracted to renovate the building for the TV series ‘We Bought a Funeral Home’ on Discovery Plus.

Court documents obtained by CK News Today show that Depencier Builders Ltd. filed a statement of claim at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on December 20, 2022, seeking a little over $315,000 in unpaid construction costs from Arryn and Heather Blumberg.

The document says that the Blumbergs entered into a contract with Depencier Builders Ltd. in the summer of 2021 for the construction company to “supply and install the renovation of a funeral home into a residential home as part of a reality television show” with an agreed upon price of $550,317.82.

Heather Blumberg spoke to CK News Today about the renovations in May of 2024, calling the completed project the family’s “dream home… designed exactly to our style.”

The statement of claim filed in a Chatham court goes on to say that Depencier Builders Ltd. held up its end of the contract by completing the work and supplying the material, but alleges that the Blumbergs failed to pay the whole bill, coming up $315,347.82 short.

The document filed in court alleges the last of the work was completed on September 6, 2022 and shows a “claim for lien” under the Construction Act was filed by Depencier Builders Ltd. on September 30, 2022.

The home was listed for sale on Realtor.ca at the beginning of June 2024.

Chatham-Kent court officials confirmed with CK News Today on Friday morning that the lawsuit is still active, but there are no future hearing dates scheduled for the civil case.

CK News Today has reached out to Heather Blumberg for comment on this story, but did not receive a response as of the time of publication. Dave Depencier of Depencier Builders Ltd. was also previously contacted by CK News Today regarding the lawsuit, but declined to comment while the matter is before the court.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

With files from Paul Pedro