EPC delays decision on new city real estate fees

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2010 (6051 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – Mayor Sam Katz’s inner circle has voted to spend another month to scrutinize a new bylaw that would require new fees to be paid to the city following real-estate transactions.

The city’s planning, property and development department has proposed new rules that would in effect require almost anyone selling a home in Winnipeg to spend up to $500 to obtain a building location certificate and spend $180 to obtain a zoning memorandum.

People selling new homes would only have to pay $100 for the memorandum.

Only homes where the owners have obtained a location certificate up to a year before a sale would be exempt from having to pay for a new memorandum.

The city claims the move will improve consumer protection and update the city’s database of property locations.

But real-estate industry professionals appeared before executive policy committee this morning to compare the new fee to a land-transfer tax and complain it will increase red tape will doing nothing to protect consumers.

Left-wing city councillors and the right-wing Canadian Taxpayers Federation have also called it a cash grab.

Members of EPC are divided about the bylaw because some feel it is not fair to create a bylaw that technically requires buyers to spend the fees but actually puts the onus on people selling homes.

As a result, EPC voted 4-2 to lay over the new bylaw until March 17 and have a city lawyer look at the wording.

Couns. Justin Swandel (St. Norbert) and Mike O’Shaughnessy (Old Kildonan) voted against the layover because the feel there is no problem with the new bylaw.

If approved in March, the bylaw would come into effect on June 7.