Editor:
Bylaw 13722 is unfair and unethical and has to be repealed.
We are Burnaby property owners of 41 years and retirees. The City of Burnaby is arbitrarily taking part of our equity by putting a liability on the property secretly, without us being informed or having any say in the matter. Expecting us to just accept it as a fait accompli. That is bad enough.
Adding insult to injury, the city is forcing us to pay an arbitrarily set interest on the very amount that the city devalued our equity. An interest rate of 5% is outrageous and does not even reflect the money market. The CRA’s set interest rate is 2% and mortgage rates of less than 2% are available.
Further, the city collects taxes on the BC Assessment value of the property. The BC Assessment value is based on the asset value and does not take liabilities into account. Therefore, we pay homeowner taxes to the city and province on an amount that is higher than the actual property value.
As retirees, we have no active income. Equity in our house is part of our retirement planning. A charge of over $37,000 and annual interest of more than $1,100 and growing definitely affects our quality of life.
Moreover, our property is not even connected to the storm sewer system.
Further, we assume that many of the affected owners are elderly or young families who thought they found a starter home only to be hit with a substantial financial burden by bylaw 13722.
All the affected properties have paid the proper development charges at the time they were built. As well, for many years they have paid the city taxes that are supposed to maintain and improve the infrastructure of the city including storm sewers. To charge approximately 6,400 of the homeowners of the city, additional development charges is unfair and unethical - if not illegal.
Further, the charges are arbitrary as there is no information how they are calculated. In our case the whole street was resurfaced as well. I assume these costs were included in the charges. However only one side of the street was affected by the bylaw. How come my neighbour across the street does not have to contribute to the road surface?
Oskar and Margo Greiner, Burnaby
