If you’ve ever wondered how the City of Burnaby sets its utility fees each year, a new report sheds more light.
City staff prepared a report for the financial management committee, which meets later this week, after committee members asked for more details.
“The Committee inquired about the rationale used in setting the utility fees for Single Family Dwellings and Two Family Dwellings,” says the report.
For Single Family Dwellings, the basic combined waterworks and Sewer Parcel fee is $1,182.12, says the report. In comparison, for a Single Family with a Suite, the rental suite incurs an additional charge equal to 50% of the combined water and sewer fees. The 50% surcharge includes water and sewer use.
That extra charge might explain why some people who rent out suites in their homes don’t want them registered as legal units with the City of Burnaby.
“All properties with the ability to connect to the City of Burnaby’s Sewer system are required to pay Sewer Parcel Tax,” says the report. “While Single Family Dwellings pay one Sewer Parcel Tax fee and one waterworks fee, Two Family Dwellings will share the one Sewer Parcel Tax fee between them. As such, Two Family Dwellings and any other form of multiple dwellings will be charged a sewer usage fee in addition to a Sewer Parcel Tax.
“A Non-Stratified Two Family Dwelling is paying a base total utility fee equal to that of a Single Family Dwelling with a suite. The total fee reflects that there is one additional family unit on this parcel of land. The supplementary utility fee of $442.74 is applied, which is equal to approximately 25% of the base charge for the entire property. The total charge for a Non-Stratified Two Family Dwelling with a suite is $2,215.92.”
A Stratified Two Family Dwelling has the same overall fees as a non-stratified property; however, fees are based on a per unit level. In most cases, stratified properties have two different owners. Each unit will receive its own Utility notice and Property Tax notice.
“Fees for stratified properties have been updated over the years, and due to various fee amendments, vary slightly when compared to non-stratified properties, but are on the whole aligned. In most cases we usually see just one suite assigned to a Two Family Dwelling, whether it’s stratified or not. The slightly lower suite fee of $442.74 for Two Family Dwellings, when compared to the Single Family suite fee of $591.06, reflects the extra family unit which has already been factored into the base utility fee of the Two Family Dwellings. Essentially the Two Family Dwelling rate is 1.5X the Single Family Dwelling rate. The water and sewer rates consist of the cost of water/sewerage as well as the overall cost of maintaining the system. The system maintenance costs for a Two Family Dwelling are not double the cost of maintaining the system for a Single Family Dwelling so the factor of 1.5X has been determined to be an appropriate allocation.”
