Property owners in Ponoka will have more time to speak with town council over a proposed utility services bylaw that seeks to put utilities in the owners’ names rather than the renters.
Real-estate developer Colin Lowdin spoke to councillors June 10 over his opposition of putting utilities in landlords’ names. “What I want to do today is urge council to use caution.”
He feels the bylaw discourages landlords from moving into Ponoka if required to do this. Lowdin said Ponoka has very little rental vacancy and he has business clients who are renting rooms at motels in town.
Rental concentration is in seniors and low-income homes and he feels middle class families and individuals have nowhere to go in town and they may live somewhere else.
“It isn’t the only factor and I appreciate that,” he added.
Adding utilities to the costs affects landowners who must deal with fluctuating costs, which makes planning difficult. He did offer some suggestions:
“If you do make the bylaw, make it permissive to your administration,” said Lowdin.
This would allow administration to apply the bylaw to landlords who continually rent their properties to people who do not pay their utilities. Acting CAO Betty Quinlan said staff spend many hours trying to recover unpaid utilities and the town usually writes-off approximately $12,000 a year, but she agreed with Lowdin.
“If there are landlords that are willing to work with us and we don’t have a problem collecting, then I don’t see a problem with that,” said Quinlan.
Lowdin also suggested administration notify the landlord if a renter was not paying their utility bills but Quinlan was unsure if there is protection under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy act.
Being more diligent would also ensure those who do not pay bills get their utilities cancelled. Lowdin said he had a renter who had $800 in unpaid bills at one point.
Mayor Rick Bonnett said council wants to work with landlords but he also wants to see bills are paid. Coun. Carla Prediger agreed.
“We don’t want to be discouraging our landlords but we do need to have our checks and balances in place,” she said.
Dave McPhee, director of operations and property services, suggested council must also decide how much of a write-off they are willing to accept since the town cannot always turn off the utilities.
He says multi-tenancy homes with two or four rental units may have one shut-off valve and turning utilities off would affect all the renters.
Coun. Tim Falkiner feels a landlord could put a clause in place stating that if utilities are unpaid, then town administration could notify the landlord, to which Lowdin said is easy to do and he would be willing to as well. He said it could be made with new tenants.
Council tabled the motion to give administration time to receive more feedback.