Vancouver Empty Homes Tax and Multi-Unit Residential Buildings – You Must Complete a Declaration!

If you are the owner of a multi-unit rental building in Vancouver, you will have received notification that you must complete the City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax Property Status Declaration by February 2, 2018.  Under the bylaw, a property which is Class 1 Residential and is a purpose-built building where the building is under one folio, the owner is required to make a declaration and will be exempt as long as one unit within that building was used as a principal residence or rented to a tenant or subtenant for at least 6 months of 2017.  The City can only tax on the parcel level, so as long as the building is on one parcel, only one unit needs to be rented to a tenant for at least 6 months of 2017.

In the declaration, it is a legal requirement for the registered owner to provide the tenant’s name(s) as evidence that the property is a rental property. The Vacancy Tax Bylaw provides the City with the authority to collect a declaration from every registered owner of property in the City of Vancouver and the bylaw provides the City with the right to collect evidence to support the information provided in the declaration.  The City has asked for the minimum information required to support a rental declaration.  In regard to multi-unit residential building as noted above, you are only required to list at least one tenancy agreement with the option to include more or all for the property.

For more information please visit the City of Vancouver website at http://www.vancouver.ca/eht or call 3-1-1 as the City has significantly staffed-up to handle all inquiries.