June 17, 2014

House on Hold

So we had a little hold up over the weekend.  We got a call Friday from the builder informing us that there was a covenant on the property that was preventing the issuing of the building permit.  Some quick checking on his part found a copy of the covenant at our lawyer's office.  We went down there for a copy.

The covenant was something called a Latecomer's Charge.  It had to do with a sewer pumping station that had been installed in 2005.  The cost was $3925.81 plus 7% per annum.  A quick run through a spreadsheet brought this to $6750.  Wait there is more.  The plan we submitted has the word Suite for the area we designated as a place where people who visit can stay.  The District of North Cowichan takes this as we are putting in a secondary suite in our house and it is designated as a two family dwelling.  Another $4500 please!

Jane and I casually drove down to the District office to talk to the planners.  We had never seen the covenant so it we had no idea what to do.  The District Staff were excellent.  After discussing it with us they said we could amend the plans to remove the word suite and remove the sink and cabinets in the little kitchen area.  All we needed to do was to send them an email to that effect.  That took care of the $4500.  The lady said the amount for the covenant would have to be calculated by someone in Engineering and we would need to come back on Monday with a cheque to pay.

On Monday morning we had a surveyor out to just check that the building forms were in the right place.  Yes, they are fine.  I also asked the surveyor whose name was Gerry to put a nail in the ground on the north lot line at the top of the hill.  The reason for this is our neighbour is encroaching a bit on our property so I wanted to make sure I had a good line for fence building later.  It turned out that Gerry the Surveyor went to school with Tony Zagerchuck who worked with me for many years at Triathlon.

After I finished with the surveyor I drove down to the District office again because I had not heard from the Engineering Department.  I had my chequebook in hand.

Again the people at the District were great.  The guy at the counter said he had heard about the plan and the problems and he went to get the Engineer who was working on the plan.  They both came back after a few minutes with the plans in hand.  "I have some good news for you," said the engineer. The charge is only levied on two family dwellings.  Because we removed the suite, there will be no charge. If we do put a suite in at some future date there will be a charge but the covenant is to expire in a few years.

So they still have to look at our plans for a couple of days and we should hear by Wednesday.  

What do you do in Chemainus when you don't have a house to build for a couple of days??

We did go to the lot and weedwacked some weeds and pulled up some ivy.  Then we stopped.  

Beach Time!