Delta is going to make it costly for anyone trying to pull a fast one when it comes to renting out an undeclared secondary suite.
Staff is recommending to council a series of amendments to the secondary suite bylaw, which includes establishing an offence for anyone not having a secondary suite occupancy permit as well as providing false information to the municipality.
Offences that can be fined range from having more than one suite operating in a home, giv-ing false information in order to get a water/sewer rate reduction, a secondary suite being voluntarily decommissioned only to be secretly reinstalled and not having a valid permit or displaying it.
Hugh Davies, Delta's property use and compliance manager, said under the existing rules, if someone signs a declaration at municipal hall that their secondary living unit is for family members and not closed off to the rest of a household, but, in fact, is a rented out separate living unit, the only recourse for Delta is to file a criminal charge.
Noting that having the matter heard in criminal court is a costly and time-consuming exercise, Davies said the best way to deal with that situation would be to impose fines on the property owner.
He said making a false declara-
tion would result in a $500 fine, in addition to a $200 daily fine each day the suite doesn't have an occupancy permit.
As for imposing fines for not having a secondary suite permit, a report to council notes Delta's requirements for having an occupancy permit are consistent with the regulations for secondary suites in B.C.'s building code. However, the problem arises when a home, which was built decades ago, does not meet other aspects of the current building code.
Davies said there are some basic things that can be added in older homes that won't pose a financial burden, such as smoke detectors and weather stripping on doors connecting the upstairs and downstairs to prevent smoke spreading in the event of fire.
Delta formally legalized secondary suites two years ago. The new bylaw requires that suites meet safety standards and are registered. Rented out suites are also subject to additional utility charges.
Davies noted that there are currently around 980 secondary suite applications involving homeowners who have filled out applications and are in the process of having their homes receive a first initial inspection to go over what is needed to meet requirements. More than 430 occupancy permits have been issued to date.
Meanwhile, there's around 2,000 homes that have had a statutory declaration signed indicating extra living units are not rental suites. Davies said that notices have also been sent out to a number of homeowners and enforcement action is pending on their unregistered secondary suites. He said bylaw inspectors are contacting around 150 of those property owners every week.
"We've given them the documents telling them they've got to come in and get it done, and if they don't do anything we start off by giving them a ticket right off the bat because we've warned them a number of times," he said.
Davies said those property owners have the option of having their units decommissioned, but they will be fined if it's discovered they reactivated them. He said the initial estimates had Delta having around 7,000 secondary suites in total.
"As time goes on we find them, and we find them in different ways. People, of course, advertise them, we find them through neighbours complaining and our staff are also pro-active, so if we see something we think is a suite we'll knock on the door. Most of the time we're looking for compliance, we're not looking to beat anyone up," he added.
