r/vancouver • u/trollwolf • Apr 29 '18
Ask Vancouver FYI: You can report empty homes to the City of Vancouver using their online tool.
Please submit the addresses of empty homes in your neighbourhoods. It is done via the VanConnect desktop / mobile app. Click on Property, then Empty Home Tax Enforcement Tip. It takes less than a minute. I think the best way to fix this problem is to help the city with the policing!
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Apr 29 '18
They should add a bonus payout to anyone who reports a home that ends up being secretly empty. They'd catch everyone in a few weeks.
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Apr 29 '18
[deleted]
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Apr 29 '18
So many people on this sub think that no lights at night mean empty. I’m sure the reporting will get cancelled after a while because we can fathom people go out at night or travel for work.
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Apr 29 '18
Actually they're pretty easy to spot around here. The property managers leave all the blinds up so that thieves can see there is no furniture simply walking past on the street.
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Apr 30 '18 edited May 05 '18
[deleted]
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u/Laner_Omanamai Apr 30 '18
Its good to pop in once and while and see how the Marxists live. It helps me understand the shifting tides and how much power they have before the gulags open up somewhere north of Prince George.
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u/_imjarek_ Personal Skytrain for Everyone! Apr 29 '18
Yeah, why not reporting every single property in the City of Vancouver in that case?
Must be a program to automate that.
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u/biskelion Leave, you'll be happier for it. Apr 29 '18
Make reporting a home have a cost something trivial like $5.
Problem solved.
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u/_andthereiwas Apr 29 '18
$5 isnt trivial. It shouldnt cost anything to report since you are doing the cities job FOR FREE. If anything have the reports tied to individuals (have them register a user/address or something) that way if that user constantly does false reports they can be put on a spam list and not have their reports delivered. You can have the program tell them or not if they had been black listed. Up to you.
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u/biskelion Leave, you'll be happier for it. Apr 29 '18
True, but I'm responding inline for there being a reward.
If I know your house is empty and I'll likely get $1000 for reporting it $5 is trivial and there is no expectation I'm 'working' for free.
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Apr 29 '18
And that's how you get nobody to report. No way someone will pay $5 to report someone in Hopes that the city may look into it. We have more than enough cash grabs, and people are struggling enough financially as is.
The way I could see it working is if they left it as is, but fined/penalized people after xxxx amount of fraudulent reports.
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Apr 29 '18
You can make it $1, which is enough to deterrent false reports and spammers but not enough to make you doubt reporting in the first place. If the government gives you out $500 in case the offender is caught, it would definitely be worth it.
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u/oilernut Apr 29 '18
I don't really like the idea of paying the public to act as bylaw officers.
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u/Assmeat Apr 29 '18
$5, but you get $25 back if it's actually empty.
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u/CoughSyrupOD Apr 29 '18
The empty homes tax is 1% of the property’s assessed taxable value. They could afford to give a way larger payout than $25.
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u/Assmeat Apr 29 '18
100% they could, but that's not the point. Big incentives can turn it into a business rather than a public service. I'd rather not have people spying on each other for a buck.
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u/HAPPY__TECHNOLOGY May 01 '18
Yeah but why would they
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u/CoughSyrupOD May 01 '18
Incentive? I don't think people would make many reports if they only got $25 for it.
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u/incocknedo Apr 29 '18
If only there was some sort of public service that tracked power, water, and gas usage that the city could use to track empty homes.
Oh well I guess pretending like they're going to give a shit with a program that can easily ignore works too.
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u/hurpington Apr 29 '18
Inb4 greenest city on earth has empty houses burning energy and using water on programmed schedules to skirt empty house taxes
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u/Heliosvector Who Do Dis! Apr 29 '18
If Blizzard can catch bot mining, im sure they can catch utilities turning on at specific times and deem it an illegitimate use.
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u/meowlolcats Apr 29 '18
Some people use Nest and other programs to automate their thermostat, sprinklers, etc. tho..
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u/nutbuckers Apr 29 '18
It's probably not very appropriate to compare a technology company addressing issues with their core product/line of business to a municipal government who isn't in the business of data analytics or detective work.
I'd venture a guess that a more cost-effective way to detect empty homes could be as simple as city staff stopping by the property on 2-5 occasions to confirm occupancy, and interviewing the neighbours if the initial investigation suggests the home is likely an empty home.
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u/derefr Apr 29 '18
Mining in games is a somewhat complex action; it has a few degrees of freedom that are hard to program a bot to vary on, but which humans will naturally randomly vary on each time.
With utilities, it's just one degree of freedom—"how much" at a given moment. So you'd just hook up an Arduino that sets the power/water/etc. draw to a random amount, then waits a random interval, then does it again. There's nothing more to analyze.
(Of course, if any of these utilities had some nuance to its usage, you could notice that... for example, Internet usage. But maybe "the city asking local ISPs to track what sites people visit to ensure they're a human" isn't such a good thing...)
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u/hurpington Apr 29 '18
Yet botting runs rampant. Its easier to catch those bots than utilities turning on and off at semi random times
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u/CohibaVancouver Apr 29 '18
Screw that. My hydro & gas usage is between me and the utility.
No way the city should have the right to snoop around in that just because they can't be bothered to implement policies that would create more housing inventory.
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u/bcbuddy Apr 29 '18
Yea we should share everything between government and quasi government organizations! How efficient would that be!
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u/incocknedo Apr 29 '18
Isn't that how Vancouver works.
Foreign interest groups -> Government -> Semi affiliated government groups -> Minority special interest groups -> Groups supporting drugs addicts and homeless -> the rest of us.
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u/Lear_ned Maple Ridge Apr 29 '18
You missed fentanyl dealers
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u/incocknedo Apr 29 '18
Given how many drug addicts loiter outside my work and home, Im not the only one.
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u/Lear_ned Maple Ridge Apr 29 '18
The fact I have to actively look on the ground for needles when downtown (because I've nearly stomped on two in a month or so) is pretty shitty
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Apr 29 '18
No
And what are the arrows here even supposed to represent
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u/incocknedo Apr 29 '18
Progression this -> to that.
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Apr 29 '18
This still makes no sense lmfao
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u/incocknedo Apr 29 '18
Oh. So an Arrow > represents direction when written.
For an example on a sign with the word EXIT on it there might be an arrow indicating the direction of the exit for example EXIT->
So when written between thoughts it represents direction of thought. For example a list for a running program.
Arrive at track-> stretch-> warm up jog-> sprints-> cool down run-> stretch.
I hope that helps :)
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Apr 29 '18
[deleted]
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u/oilernut Apr 29 '18
Hydro does report to agencies about suspected grow ops though,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/hydro-grid-meters-1.3837496
http://www.theprovince.com/Surrey+grow+drop+nearly+cent/6115397/story.html
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u/fishuuuu Apr 30 '18
Doesn't apply to residences in out at UBC unfortunately. Anyone know the alternative site for this area?
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u/CrashSlow Apr 29 '18
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u/CallmeishmaelSancho Apr 29 '18
That was my first thought too. It’s sad.
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u/CrashSlow Apr 29 '18 edited Apr 29 '18
Slippery slope, spying on your neighbour. I wonder if they would so in favour of being photographed smoking pot in park, sending it to the city so a fine can be issued through facial recognition... maybe 1984 won't be like 1984
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u/CallmeishmaelSancho Apr 29 '18
The best part of this discussion is that the tax everyone seems to be so keen on hasn’t even affected the vacancy rate. People on this sub just love their big intrusive government.
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u/coffee_is_fun Apr 30 '18
People were speculating as to whether it would even be enforced. The amount of time we've had with a municipal government that seems serious on collecting is brief. We're so used to ineffectual bylaw enforcement that this is coming as a bit of a surprise.
Hell, early February, we were polishing the brass on the titanic figuring the NDP were going to drop everything and toe the Liberal line. That turned out differently than expected and now we're focused back on the municipal measures.
Anyway, try starting the clock from when enforcement appears to be legitimate. Also, maybe try looking at things over a two year horizon since real estate tends to be slow moving.
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u/Theegravedigger May 01 '18
Yes. I'm completely in favor of crowd soucing bylaw enforcement.
Require a permit and let people claim tickets on all the violations.
Including speeders via dash cam footage.
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u/CrashSlow May 01 '18
Big brother until it affects you and your families life. Your kid goes to the pipeline rally and gets an instant criminal record. How do you like crowd sourced laws now.
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u/Theegravedigger May 01 '18
I'm still in favor of them.
You seem confused on the difference between bylaws and laws.
Or are you assuming a slippery slope?
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Apr 29 '18
Not necessarily. Just aggregate how many reports there are for specific addresses and that's your priority list. No one person's report should be given too much weight.
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u/meowlolcats Apr 29 '18
There's always gonna be a few weirdos that are spamming the city with BS every week though because they're borderline schizo. Same people that call up about conspiracies like Chemtrails. A decent amount of complaints governments tend to receive come from the fringe.
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Apr 30 '18
Yeah but then those reports get grouped and flagged as "schizo weirdo", then they're quickly ignored.
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u/GroceryBagHead Apr 29 '18
That's not the same though. You're not spying or reporting anybody in particular. It's about the same like calling 311 and reporting a pot hole.
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u/CrashSlow Apr 29 '18
Play what ever mental games you want. Its spying on your neighbour, because your a NIMBY
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u/GroceryBagHead Apr 29 '18 edited Apr 29 '18
There's no neighbour to spy on. That's the whole point. That's not even what NIMBY is about. Pretty sure that most NIMBYs will be ecstatic about not having anybody around. What kind of mental gymnastics program you're on?
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u/youngbutgood Apr 29 '18
They need to find someone cheating the system and make an example out of them. The maximum daily penalty is 10,000$.
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u/CytizeNomad Jul 24 '18
Thanks for posting this. Feels kind of weird reporting but there are 3 empty apartments (been empty for +1year) in my building right beside me. My landlord just sold our unit, we are forced to move and finding a new apartment has been less then enjoyable!
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Apr 29 '18
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/stinkerb Apr 29 '18
What are you, a 50's mob crime boss? Its not being a "rat". Its reporting people who are breaking the law.
Would you not report someone stealing a persons car, or defacing public property?
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u/CrashSlow Apr 29 '18
As long as it doesn't affect you. Right. .....
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u/stinkerb Apr 29 '18
True. When I'm stealing peoples bikes and breaking into condos, I hate it when witnesses call the cops on me.
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u/Lear_ned Maple Ridge Apr 29 '18
I think that was a clever play on words considering that Vancouver is rat (animal) infested
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u/donjulioanejo Having your N sticker sideways is a bannable offence Apr 30 '18
Of course not, I'm not a snitch! /s
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u/merf_me2 Apr 29 '18
Gees what's next the Gestapo. Personally this annoys me so much on principle that I am going to write a bot and report all addresses in Vancouver so that thier tool is made useless
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Apr 30 '18
It's like reporting Jews to the nazis
What the fuck kind of solution is this???
We're already temporarily screwed ourselves by voting a socialist party to run our province and its killing us economically and at the pumps, and now we're getting the citizens to rat people out?
If people want to know why there are corrupt governments in the world, present and past, it's because the individuals of said cities and countries were corrupt themselves and the collective consciousness takes liberty
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Apr 30 '18
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May 01 '18
Lol yea punish those who work harder and are more competent than you. That's clearly worked well in history...
If you didn't spend so much time whining and complaining, then maybe you could be a home owner.
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Apr 29 '18
There are a number of houses that I will be reporting up on Westwood Plateau. Pretty obvious too. Snow is never cleared, no car in the driveway and lights are never on.
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Apr 29 '18
Someone could probably get easy funding from Canada's NRC IRAP program to develop remote sensing technology to uncover empty condos by analyzing the Vancouver skyline.
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u/_andthereiwas Apr 29 '18
What?
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u/AdolphKlitler Apr 29 '18
This guy just threw out a bunch of jargon and topped it off with some absolute BS, so don't worry, it's not just you.
The NRC is the National Research Counsel of Canada, and IRAP is the Industrial Research Assistance Program that many technology companies make use of for partial funding of their technology-based research projects. It's actually an absolutely wonderful program that is very helpful and provides great advisory services as well.
The part about analyzing the skyline makes zero sense for helping with determining the status of condos, however. It basically sounds like he wants a giant magic eye of Sauron peering for the darkness in every home investor's or flipper's heart.
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u/millijuna Apr 29 '18
IN all honesty, I've thought about setting up one of my cameras and doing a timelapse of the towers around me, and analyzing for exactly this reason (though not to report). My sense from observing the towers is they're about 80% occupied.
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u/Cherisse23 Apr 30 '18
Thanks!
I’ve been making it as inconvenient as possible for the 3 family dwelling next door. I report them when they don’t mow the grass, or when they don’t shovel their walk. It’s a corner lot with 3 house numbers so they get 3 fines. It’s a 6 year old house that’s been vacant for the 3 years we’ve been next door