The City of Windsor is moving ahead with a vacant home tax.
During 2022 budget deliberations, Council voted to have administration move forward with the new tax which would be applied to any residence identified as vacant for over 90 days.
The tax was proposed in 2019 as part of a question raised by Fabio Costante, Ward 2 Windsor City Councillor, as a way to battle the affordable housing crisis by either encouraging the owner to sell the property, if they're not using it, or encouraging landlords to lower rents to find a tenant.
Costante says this a notice to property owners who are not doing anything with their vacant properties, to do something.
"It was a notice to the CTC {Canadian Transit Company} and Ambassador Bridge Company, that has two dozen {boarded up} properties or more in the west-end, to do something. It's a notice out of town landlords who are letting their properties rot, to do something," he says.
There will be a consultation period over the coming months before the bylaw goes into effect.
Costante says the vacant property tax could be the range of one to two per cent of the assessed value of the home.
"You could look at taxes anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 in addition to the property taxes they already pay," he says.
The City of Windsor's Building Department has currently identified 240 buildings as being vacant with 165 of those listed as residential properties.
Costatne hopes it's an incentive for property owners to do something.
"In today's market, when you look at the market pressures and, you look at in a lot of cases, how lucrative it could be for a landlord to rent out their properties, today more than ever. That, plus this additional weight of an extra tax if you don't do anything with your property, could be helpful," he says.
Costante adds several methods will be explored to identify vacant properties including self declaration and complaints filed through 3-1-1.
Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver already have similar vacant home taxes in place.