Adding Building & Development Fees to the Tax Roll
Res #: 20-17A
Number: 20
Year: 2017
Midterm: No
Expired: No
Responses Received: No
Departments: Saskatchewan Ministry of Government Relations
WHEREAS section 369 of The Municipalities Act allows municipalities to add specific unpaid charges to tax rolls and section 370 of The Municipalities Act allows municipalities to apply to the courts for an injunction or other order for specific bylaw contraventions; and
WHEREAS the addition of building permit fees, including development fees, Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency fees and building inspection fees to the tax roll is currently not allowed; and
WHEREAS some ratepayers will start and finish a building project without first informing the municipality, or obtaining a permit; and
WHEREAS some ratepayers who obtain a building permit will take so long to complete a building project that extra building inspections are required, above and beyond what the initial building permit fees covered, resulting in the municipality being responsible for payment of those extra fees without guarantee of recuperation; and
WHEREAS stop work orders are not an effective solution to the problem if the project has already been completed or for projects that are on-going with small deficiencies outstanding; and
WHEREAS municipalities have limited resources to allocate towards any legal costs related to section 370 of The Municipalities Act and those legal costs would generally far outweigh the outstanding building permit fees, making this manner of collection unfeasible;
BE IT RESOLVED that SARM advocate to the Provincial Government to amend section 369 of The Municipalities Act to allow municipalities to add the cost of unpaid building permit fees, development fees, Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency fees, and building inspection fees to the tax roll.
