The Village of Port Alice will write off taxes for seven mobile homes they’ve deemed uncollectible.
Finance Officer Bonnie Danyk brought a resolution to Mayor and Council at the Oct. 11 Port Alice Council meeting regarding the five demolished mobile homes and two uninhabitable homes that have a combined $29,323.49 owed in taxes.
“Municipalities can request an Order from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for an Order permitting the write off of taxes and receivables,” said Danyk in a report to Council, “As per section 3 of the Manufactured Home Act these taxes cannot be charged to the owner of the land (Alderwood Acres) on which the mobile homes stood or stand.”
Of the two uninhabitable mobile homes, the village of Port Alice obtained one in the 2016 tax sale.
“Two are uninhabitable, now what is going to happen to those?” asked Mayor Jan Allen. Danyk responded that “number 42 actually belongs to the village now, so we would like to see if anybody would be interested in buying it for a very reasonable price and fixing it up,” she said, adding “we would still never recover the taxes so I would still recommend the write off to see what we can get back from the province, but we might avoid having to pay for demolition fees.”
Danyk also noted the second uninhabitable mobile home is still in the owner’s name and the mobile home park would have to pay for the cost of the demolition.
Council. Marnie Chase said that “I just worry that this could be an idea for others to follow suit that we just write off their taxes when people trash and don’t pay.”
Allen responded that “it has been going on here and everywhere else for a long time - the one that I asked about that had owed over $13,000 it has been going on for at least 14 years where no taxes had been paid.”
Danyk noted she strongly recommends “if the trailer park ever sells, the utility fees go to the park instead of the individual trailer park owners as it is now - that would eliminate a huge part of the problem.”
Council approved the necessary steps to write off the taxes for the seven mobile homes.