Bo Kauffmann of Remax Performance Realty reports that the City of Winnipeg is strongly considering a new bylaw which will add considerable burden to the home seller at the time of the sale.
This new bylaw, which is being promoted as "helpful to buyers", will make it mandatory for home sellers to provide a 'current' Surveyors Certificate at the time of the sale. The definition of "current" is likely to be "Within the past 5 years, so long as no substantial changes have been made to the property".
Bo explained that, or example, if you bought a house 3 years ago and had a Surveyors Certificate completed at that time, but then added an attached deck or other structure, your Certificate will likely be inadequate. This means that you would have to order a fresh one from the city, of course at your cost, which will be in the hundreds of dollars.
Although he City is promising a 5-day turn-around, this would not include any variance or other work that needs to be completed, depending on any problems or shortcomings discovered by the Surveyors Certificate.
Bo cautions home-sellers:
For more info, go to Bo's blog at http://bokauffmann.com/
