The City of Mount Pearl will no longer be offering refunds for compliance letters tied to real estate deals that end up falling through.
The City charges applicants $250 for the research and issuance of compliance letters, which are needed by banks and mortgage companies and home buyers as proof that a property is up to date on its taxes and any other municipal matters.
“It’s been noted that applications for compliance letter requests are often being cancelled due to real estate transactions not proceeding,” said councillor Isabelle Fry during last week’s public meeting. “The request to cancel is most often after the City has utilized its resources and staff have completed work on the task. To date, if the compliance letter is cancelled, refunds have been issued without question. And this has been causing a considerable amount of work for our staff.”
The Planning, Engineering and Development Committee recommended that the $250 compliance letter fee, as well as permit application fees, be deemed non-refundable once the City has receipted the fee.
“The point is that the work is already done,” said Fry, who added the goal is to cut back on unnecessary applications and better utilize staff’s time.
Council approved the motion unanimously.
