'They cause blight in the neighbourhood': Council approves vacant house tax
The City of Windsor is putting owners of vacant homes on notice.
City of Windsor chief building official John Revell said the new vacant home tax will be another useful tool for the city.
“Largely aimed at speculators who are sitting on properties and holding them in hopes the values go up and they can resell them to make a quick profit and don’t have to bother too much renovating the house or dealing with tenants,” Revell said.
“Often times these vacant homes are left to rot. They cause blight in the neighbourhood, they cause rodent infestation because they are not taken care of, they are not activated,” says Ward 2 councillor Fabio Costante.
Council voted during 2022 budget deliberations to have administration move forward with a vacant house tax proposed by Costante.
“This is one lever at our disposal to start encouraging more housing in our community,” he says.
The city has identified 165 residential properties that are currently designated as vacant. These properties include 30 owned by the company which controls the Ambassador Bridge.
Costante says it’s one way to address the affordable housing crisis by encouraging owners to sell or lower rents to find tenants.
“The CTC, the out-of-town landlord, the property owner that is not caring for their home, they are on notice now and we have this lever at our disposal and council unanimously endorsed it and I am looking forward to its roll out,” says Costante.
Properties that sit empty for more than 90 days will be hit.
“We have a shortage of housing, and rents are increasing and house prices are increasing so it’s market driven. So we would like to see properties back and available for people to live in. We’d like to see homes that need to be repaired, repaired and in a good state,” says Revell.
The tax could range between 1-2 per cent of the assessed value of the home.
“In real dollars we are looking at somewhere in the range of $2,000-$3,000 per property could be the added penalty in addition to paying property taxes already,” says Costante. “In addition, other penalties we could impose if they fail to register or if they try to abdicate the responsibilities through this new directive.”
The Downtown Mission feels this is good news.
“There are so many people out there that can’t find an affordable apartment or home or anything like that so to have extra opportunity would be wonderful,” says interim executive director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin.
“It’s a critical piece of the overall puzzle enforcing property standards and creating more opportunity for safe and accessible housing,” says Costante.
A consultation period will be held in the coming months to address issues such as longer term absences and ongoing renovations before a bylaw takes effect.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Air turbulence: When can it become dangerous?
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
People in Gaza are 'wasting' from famine: World Food Programme director
World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain says people living in Gaza are 'wasting' as famine concerns continue amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
WATCH Why today's inflation numbers are good if you have a mortgage
New inflation data is 'welcome news' for consumers and an economist says it could signal the possibility for a interest rate cut as several core measures also continue to ease.
'Mr. Trump doesn't worry us', says Canadian ambassador
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues the 'Team Canada' charm offensive to U.S. lawmakers and business leaders, Canada's ambassador to the United States downplayed the effect of another Trump presidency on Canada.
Toronto Blue Jays fan struck by 110 m.p.h foul ball offered tickets, signed baseball by team
The Toronto Blue Jays have offered tickets and a signed baseball to a fan who says she was struck in the face by a 110 m.p.h (177 km/h) foul ball at Friday’s game.
OPP continues to investigate boat collision north of Kingston, Ont. that left 3 people dead
Ontario Provincial Police continue to investigate a long weekend fatal boat collision on Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont.
'Miscommunication' Liberals say of Speaker Fergus event invite Conservatives call partisan
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is facing fresh Conservative-led calls to resign, this time over "very partisan" and 'inflammatory' language used – the Liberals say mistakenly – to promote an upcoming event.
opinion Tom Mulcair: With Trudeau spiralling, Mark Carney waits in the wings
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.