Caban Condos: Buyers say they lost life savings to Sask. company [Video]

This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) and CTV News Saskatoon.

In 2022, Tanya Frisk-Welburn and her husband bought what they hoped would be a dream home in Mexico.

The seller was a company called Caban Condos whose website described it as “two guys from Saskatchewan” building condominiums near idyllic seaside locations in the Yucatan peninsula.

Frisk-Welburn, who lives in Bengough, Sask., stumbled upon the company’s advertisements while planning a holiday in 2020. She was about to retire, and liked the idea of working with a local company.

“We put down a whole ton of money,” Frisk-Welburn said. “It’s my retirement fund.”

But when Frisk-Welburn and her husband arrived to take possession of the condo in December 2022 — when they were promised it would be finished — it was still being renovated. They tried again a year later, and it still wasn’t finished.

Frisk-Welburn still has no condo. She’s out nearly US$170,000 and is suing Caban Condos. And she’s not …