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Joanna Colettis has, for decades, owned and rented out to tenants a Vancouver house near City Hall with six suites. Each year, she fills out the province’s speculation tax declaration and the city’s vacancy tax forms.

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In January, she was chosen for an audit to prove the suites were occupied in 2021. But the city didn’t accept the documents she presented, and now she faces a growing empty homes tax bill that threatens her ability to keep renting out the units , which is the very goal of the tax.

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“This is all I have,” said an exasperated Colettis, leafing through piles of forms she gathered from her tenants, including cellphone bills, drivers’ licenses, social insurance numbers, tax documents, business licenses and rental agreements.

She has owned the property and rented out the suites since the 1980s and is speaking out to “plead for common sense.”

She recently saw a Postmedia story about a Delta couple worried they would lose their home after their landlord was hit with a $96,000 provincial speculation and vacancy tax bill, even though they had occupied the house for almost seven years. To pay it, the landlord has listed the house for sale.

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“What is going on here? This is a mess. Is that what could happen to me?” asked Colettis, describing how she rents out reasonably priced units, with two one-bedroom suites for $900 each, and a larger two-bedroom one for $2,040 per month.

“These are affordable, renovated suites, close to (Cambie) and transit. The tenants are all young people who want to be close to downtown,” she said.

Initially, she took her proof to City Hall, where she was told some of it would not be accepted. She left shaken and upset after the staff person that day interrogated her “as if I was some kind of criminal and trying to hide something.”

Later, she got a letter rejecting the cellphone, banking and Internet bills from two tenants as evidence because they weren’t from 2021. She also has copies of drivers’ licenses from two tenants showing they each live at the address. However, one got her license in November 2022 and the other renewed her in 2023. A letter from the city’s compliance analyst was specifically looking for proof of identity that was valid for at least six months in 2021, and said it only needed proof for one tenants, not all of them.

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Colettis teaches English as a second language for a living, but says combing through the requirements listed in the city’s letter left her baffled at a time when she was also frazzled trying to care for her elderly parents.

In the end, she gave up tracking down the forms as specified and didn’t take the option of filing a notice of complaint. In mid-May, the city billed her for $66,396, which is three per cent of the assessed value of her property in 2021. She was aghast. By mid-June, that amount, now overdue, went up by five per cent to $69,715.

Colettis’ adult sons live in two of the suites, one for 10 years and the other for two years. The remaining four suites have been rented to tenants since her father bought the building in 1972. Colettis purchased the property in the 1980s and continued to rent out the suites. There have been several long-term tenants who raised their children there, as well as young people for whom it was their first home, she said.

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“We have lovely tenants who are happy and socially interact with each other, have barbecues in the backyard and a communal garden,” she said.

The latest ones have been renting for three years, two years and two and a half years as the pandemic shutdown receded. The basement suite was renovated and the current tenants moved about 10 months ago.

She pays for the utilities, upgrades, property tax, house insurance, business license fees and maintenance.

The City of Vancouver said in a statement it was unable to provide details of individual cases.

“The city conducts random and risk-based audits to help validate property status declarations, and to encourage the highest possible level of compliance with the Empty Homes Tax program,” said Julia Aspinall, director of financial services. “When properties are selected for audit, property owners are required to provide specific documentation that ensures the declaration made. Documents provided must be relevant to the reference year under audit.”

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The city declined to say how many homes were typically chosen for an audit.

An audit compliance team follows a standard requirement of documents to prove occupancy of a residential property for six months or more, the city said. The property owner can file a notice of complaint, and the vacancy tax review officer can review additional documentation provided to substantiate the occupancy of those properties.

jlee-young@postmedia.com

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