Tolls & Taxes, Water Rates

 

Water Tolls are charged to property owners that have an active water service. Tolls are flat rate or metered, depending on water use. Metered rates are used for commercial properties and flat rates used for residences.

Parcel Taxes are charged to all owners of property within the Improvement District.

Water Tolls and Parcel Taxes are updated yearly by the board of trustees. Current parcel taxes and water rates can be found in the most recent bylaws, located on the Bylaws page.

Payments

Pay at First Credit Union or e-transfer to contact@vananda-id.ca

More options for payment can be on the Payments page.

How Property Taxes and Water Tolls Are Determined and Collected

• Properties are assessed using the most recent BC Assessment Roll
  • Our property assessment basis is parcel size
• Separate budgets are developed for the Water System and the Fire Department to estimate the following years expenses. Revenue will come from 3 sources:
  • Water Tolls – for the cost of water production (e.g. hydro, chlorine, salt, filters, labor)
  • Parcel Taxes – for infrastructure costs (e.g. mains & water lines, leak detection & repair)
  • Fire Protection Taxation – for Fire Department (e.g. equipment, training, saving for new truck)
  • Indirect costs such as insurance, administration, and accounting are divided proportionally among the above
• Amounts for Water Tolls and Parcel Taxes are determined by dividing the amount of revenue needed for water production and infrastructure costs among the number and types of water connections and parcels.
• 3 new bylaws are created that state the amounts to be charged: Water Tolls, Parcel Taxes, and Fire Protection Taxation. These bylaws follow defined Local Government Act procedures, including multiple readings and adoption by the Board. The bylaws are then submitted to Inspector of Municipalities for registration. Supporting information may be required before the Bylaw is registered. This was requested, and accepted, for the 2022 Parcel Taxes.
• Once registered, the Fire Protection Taxation Bylaw is forwarded to BC Assessment for collection through the Rural Property Tax
• Property owners are invoiced annually
  • All property owners pay for Fire Protection as part of the Rural Property Tax from BC Assessment
  • All property owners are invoiced for Parcel Tax by VAID
  • Water Tolls are included on the VAID Parcel Tax invoice where there are active water connections, unless water is charged at metered rates (invoiced quarterly).

What is a Parcel?

For VAID Parcel Tax assessment, “parcel” means any lot, block, or other area which is the subject of separate registration in the Land Title Office and includes two or more continuous lots registered in the name of the same person and grouped under one Roll Number as listed in the current Roll Detail Report from BC Assessment (BYLAW 170 – Parcel Tax Assessment).

A parcel is usually one lot; it can be two or more adjacent lots with the same owner. Some situations where this is the case are:

• a house straddles the shared property line
• a block of undeveloped lots

Owners who are invoiced separate Parcel Taxes for adjoining lots can request VAID re-assess the lots as one parcel. This can be done at the Annual Court of Revision, held in February.

Owners of two or more adjacent lots with separate Roll Numbers can also apply to BC Assessment to have their lots grouped under one Roll Number. These would then be considered one parcel for VAID Parcel Tax.

Adjacent lots with the same owner can be amalgamated into one lot through the Land Titles Authority. This is reported by local property owners who have completed this, to be an easy process.

Parcel Size and Taxes

VAID uses the total area of parcels to set the tax amounts. There are 4 size Groups. Larger parcels incur higher tax amounts.

• A – up to .5 acre
• B – over 0.5 up to 1 acre
• C – over 1 up to 5 acres
• D – over 5 acres

Other allowable methods to use as a basis for Parcel Tax Assessment are:

• Property usage
• Flat rate (same for all parcels, regardless of size or value)
• Amount of road frontage
• Property value (land value only or land & improvements both)

The current parcel size category method of assessment can be changed; we will do this if residents agree. The Board has discussed this at meetings on several occasions and it was included in the 2022 Newsletter. Updated Apr 12, 2022: Options were presented at the 2022 AGM, as well as possible restructure of Water Tolls billing. Residents at the meeting did not request to make the changes. No further action is planned.