Fees, Permits and Development Fees

Fees, permits or development charges are often inescapable. It is not uncommon therefore to find municipal governments, regional districts, counties, or states or provinces trying to find more ways to generate more income and preferably at little or no expense to the governing body.

It is interesting to note however, that regions where such charges have not become exorbitant upon the population, housing costs remained more stable over the last few years, as discussed recently in one issue of the National Home Builder's Association newsletters.

Personally I've seen them range from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars. Some such charges are not for installation of services or building or development permits, nor are some according to value, and are but for no other purpose but to collect more money without having to provide a service. They are often a fixed charge "per door" ON TOP of all of the other charges that a developer or land owner must pay.

I love to call these "Whimsy" or "Extortion" collections. By their very nature they are an inflationary money grab on the backs of an increasingly over-burdened population.

Given the current financial state of affairs of the USA and Canada, I caution the use of and increase of such "creative methods" as it is my personal belief that they will accelerate distress upon the public - be it in the form of higher purchase prices and later higher property taxes (you don't think the developer will swallow those extra charges - of course they'll pass them on to you the end consumer), or a hyper-inflation with resultant deepening of financial distress of many citizens.

It is my hope that governments will do what they encourage responsible citizens to do - be fiscally responsible to their purpose AND to the citizens they are supposed to protect.

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