My Vacant House Project

[MsMe]

It has a great style. I love the older houses. A shame to see it sit empty like that.

[SteelTown]

City Sets Out By-Law Enforcement Priorities
Ken Mann
11/18/2008

Hamilton politicians have approved a new priority-based system for by-law enforcement.

It's an approach that sets out which of the city's by-laws will recieve pro-active enforcement and blitzes....compared with others that will recieve a lower priority, complaint-based response.

Areas around which residents can expect to see a "get-tough approach", include vital services and noise, business licencing, property standards, solid waste and traffic by-laws.

Director of Parking and By-Law Enforcement Marty Hazell says it's not possible or practical to pro-actively enforce all of Hamilton's almost 50 by-laws.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

City Sets Out By-Law Enforcement Priorities
Ken Mann
11/18/2008

Hamilton politicians have approved a new priority-based system for by-law enforcement.

It's an approach that sets out which of the city's by-laws will recieve pro-active enforcement and blitzes....compared with others that will recieve a lower priority, complaint-based response.

Areas around which residents can expect to see a "get-tough approach", include vital services and noise, business licencing, property standards, solid waste and traffic by-laws.

Director of Parking and By-Law Enforcement Marty Hazell says it's not possible or practical to pro-actively enforce all of Hamilton's almost 50 by-laws.

Great news. But I do have one question.

Do I read the above properly that those bylaw violations which are important enough to a member of the community to report to the bylaw office, get a lower priority than those bylaw feels are important at a specific point in time, i.e. blitz on a specific bylaw?

BTW, the spelling enforcement officers might get them on the 'recieve' (twice).

[raisethehammer]

well, the family who bought it must not mind. They've done a good job fixing it up so far.

[raisethehammer]

I'm going through the same process now too. Got in touch with my councillor who jumped on it. The city staffer said that their records show the property was 'compliant'.
I kindly said that "if this is compliance, I need to move to another city".
3/4 of the property was NEVER touched by the owner. Not once. All summer. Now our house feels like we're living in an allergen testing zone 24-7.
What a stupid system. The property owner shows up, says "yea, I'm on it" and the city never checks back in.
Brutal.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

I'm going through the same process now too. Got in touch with my councillor who jumped on it. The city staffer said that their records show the property was 'compliant'.
I kindly said that "if this is compliance, I need to move to another city".
3/4 of the property was NEVER touched by the owner. Not once. All summer. Now our house feels like we're living in an allergen testing zone 24-7.
What a stupid system. The property owner shows up, says "yea, I'm on it" and the city never checks back in.
Brutal.

If there is any ragweed, http://k53.pbase.com/u33/richarda/up...DSC00592cx.jpg, they have to remove it no matter the height. It's a noxious weed as it has a negative impact to humans (hayfever).

If a notice is issued than they have 5 days to resolve the items outlined on the notice. At the end of 5 days I send the city an email detailing the address, notice number, bylaw officer, etc from the notice (you do have to walk up to the front door to get that info if the notice is still present), and let them know it's not fixed.

[raisethehammer]

your link doesn't work...I'd like to check out a pic of that stuff. I'm certain he's got a pile of it.

[FairHamilton]

Try this one: http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...%3Den%26sa%3DG

[raisethehammer]

well, it took the whole bloody summer, but the overgrown, weedy mess on our street is cleaned up to satisfaction as of yesterday.
Amazing how much better the whole street looks because of it.

[FairHamilton]

Ours problem house was finally cut last Saturday, 73 days after initial complaint and more follow-ups then I care to mention.........

I can hardly wait until winter when I start complaining about the sidewalk being unshoveled.......

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

Ours problem house was finally cut last Saturday, 73 days after initial complaint and more follow-ups then I care to mention.........

I can hardly wait until winter when I start complaining about the sidewalk being unshoveled.......

don't remind me...this guy chipped off a hunk of sidewalk last year by hacking away with a huge straight-edge after being gone for about 2 months of nonstop blizzards and freezing weather that turned his sidewalk into a skating rink.

[go_leafs_go02]

Any pictures to update us with?

[BrianE]

I interpret this to mean that any by-law outside of the four stated priorities would not be activly enforced unless someone phones and complains.

I believe unleashed dogs would be a good example. By-law officers won't go out of their way to capture a roaming dog if they see one, but if someone complains, they will address it.

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by BrianE

By-law officers won't go out of their way to capture a roaming dog if they see one, but if someone complains, they will address it.

Funny, I've seen animal control drive across Churchill Fields to ticket owners of unleashed dogs.

Then again, it is Westdale....

[SteelTown]

https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings...umentId=306964

Based on the vacant home tax proposal, 91% support the idea of a vacant home tax (VHT), and based on a 1% tax rate, the city's estimated revenue would be $17 million over five years. Estimated revenue of $4.3 million in the first year of VHT.

Vacant house is defined as "have been unoccupied for more than six months during the preceding calendar year"

[ScreamingViking]

Good.

We took possession of our house in early March 2020. Toured it pre-sale in mid-January. Next door sits another renovated older house -- I believe it has a basement unit, so it represents two "homes"

It has been empty since we first looked at ours. 2 years. Probably longer.

I think there was initially a permit issue that may have had to do with a rebuilt front porch and steps. The owner comes by once a week, and he has a crew that takes care of the small front lawn and leaves and such once a week, shovels snow, etc. I talked to one of the guys in the fall (as they blew leaves out the back alley; no bagging like everyone else does... apparently told to do so by the owner , but I digress) and apparently the owner has a number of houses in west Hamilton and had just sold one of them.

Given the way our house has likely risen in value in the two years since our purchase, he's sitting on a bundle of cash.

It's a shame. It's a nice house -- we found an old listing for it and it was beautiful inside, but 2 years to resolve a permit issue? Come on. I know the city is difficult to deal with and their bureaucratic inertia is the stuff of legend, but there must have been a way to do something in all that time.

[mattgrande]

Yeah, there's two houses across the street from me that are both "being renovated" by the same owner, but I see people in there maybe once a week for an hour or two at a time. One's been vacant for about two years now, the other, even longer than that.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by mattgrande

Yeah, there's two houses across the street from me that are both "being renovated" by the same owner, but I see people in there maybe once a week for an hour or two at a time. One's been vacant for about two years now, the other, even longer than that.

Another small home down the street has also been vacant since we moved in. There's a plan to build a large duplex on the lot (which included an unpaved driveway beside the house... very rare in this neighbourhood) but they only got around to doing some sewer and water connection work last fall; at least it seemed related to the property.

And I'm not sure if this is a valid complaint or not, but we had no notice that the water would be shut off for this work; it was off for several hours too. I know it's necessary, but especially with people working out of their homes a little notice would have been nice. It's not like this was an emergency situation with a burst watermain. For me, it just meant waiting to fill up a kettle. Had I been in the shower though, about to rinse off soap... ugh.

[craftbeerdad]

It's a fine line between taking your time renovating and being vacant though.

The city isn't particularly quick sometimes with approving some requests.

Here's a more extreme example but features some quotes. I remember when this house was in the globe and mail years ago. Neat to see a follow up.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...shed-1.6334106

[craftbeerdad]

There's a bunch of vacant houses (investment hoarding) in my neighbourhood, Stinson. Whether they're just waiting to move in, take forever to renovate or waiting for city permits, who's to say? That would be the tough part in a vacant property tax dispute.

Either way there's definitely a lot of investment monies (second mtg's / rental properties / investment properties, home holding corporations, AirBnb or equivalent alternative) being dumped into the city. Even areas that a few years ago would be lucky to get $350-400K for a house in a less gentrified area shall we say, is going for $600K+ or more if they've been home depot'd reno flip (which always blows my mind, since they look so shitty and sterile). Nutty times.