Owners billed after vacant property fires

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This article was published 02/05/2023 (858 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg has charged the owners of nine properties the cost to battle recent fires at their vacant buildings, as part of a crackdown that aims to get empty structures better secured.

Five of the individual invoices seek payments between about $4,800 and $7,700, while the remaining four owners face heftier bills that range between roughly $27,600 and $103,800. The first round of invoices went out March 30, with the most recent bill sent April 28. (The date reflects when invoices were sent, not necessarily when each fire took place.)

The charges are intended to help ensure property owners do all they can to reduce the risk of empty structures, which have been blamed for attracting arson, vandalism and other threats, according to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

“The key is to incentivize property owners to properly maintain their buildings, secure them and hopefully to revitalize (the homes) for housing purposes. We do have quite a few buildings that have been maintained in quite a state of disrepair,” said Scott Wilkinson, a WFPS assistant chief.

Only one $4,800 bill has been paid by a property owner so far, though the fee notices were all issued within the past few weeks.

Wilkinson said the city can refer the charges to a collection agency and/or start a process to add them to the property tax roll 90 days after the first payment notice. (The city would offer reminders about the bills at 30 and 60 days after the notice prior to taking those potential steps.)

City council approved the new fee system in January, after the number of fires at vacant homes increased in all but two of the past eight years. In 2015, there were nine fires in vacant buildings, which rose to 84 in 2022, according to WFPS data.

Between Jan. 1 and April 14, 2023, there were another 32 vacant building fires.

While he expects it’s too soon to predict how the new fees will affect that trend, Wilkinson said the risks posed by the structures warranted action.

“There’s a variety of issues that occur. The buildings are prone for illegal entry and when that occurs, there’s criminal activity (at times) and also a high risk of fire. And when those fires occur, they’re putting neighbours and community at risk, as well as first responders… They’re very dangerous to the community and our staff,” he said.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, a key supporter of the new fees, said they are necessary to better protect the public and prevent destruction. Ideally, some empty homes could be preserved well enough to convert into affordable housing in the future, said Rollins.

“We need a tough-as-nails approach to the cost of sending fire crews multiple times to vacant and derelict buildings. We need property owners to really listen to the neighbours of the surrounding streets… (The fires are) having impacts on whole neighbourhoods and there’s a housing crisis on top of that,” she said.

The Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry councillor also deemed it “very early days” to gauge how effective the new charges will be. She hopes the action will also help increase public awareness about the financial responsibilities that come with owning a building.

“I’m always concerned about relative affordability, about whether folks are really conscious of going into these properties and taking on ownership in a serious way,” said Rollins.

The city did not release the addresses of vacant buildings where owners have been charged for a fire response.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

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