phil wrote:JacquieJet wrote:As always, you guys give awesome advice and insights. Thanks everyone!
As an aside, my house just received an official heritage designation this week! Woohoo!
That's something to be proud of. How will affect the value? Ive wondered about doing the same but others near me say dont because it limits the potential and thus the value. on the other hand it could save it from destruction at some point. there was a local story where a neighboring city near me was trying to give a house away free, with the condition it was moved. The house already had heritage status but new owners still bought it for the lot. It made me doubt the integrity of the program and the financial sacrifice the original owner may have made to assign such status. In some cases cities have funds they can offer I think they would paint the outside of my house but then if I wanted to change the outside color at anytime or do modification that are visible,I would need the city's permission. You kind of do need that permission to pull a permit anyway. I have a friend that has the designation and lives near me , he said dont do it. he bought the house with the designation already assigned and just lifted it so it is possible. It probably just had to be passed by council first.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about what designation does/does not mean (and do!). The one I hear most often is “will I have to ask permission to work on my house?”. Around here (Ontario), designation only protects the exterior of the house, not the interior (unless an interior feature is specified in the designation, which is rare). Things like putting a fresh coat of paint on your house is fine, and actually encouraged (it falls under “maintenance”, and does not require permission from anyone). Now, if you were to paint the house neon orange, as an example, someone might make a complaint, and if there is a bylaw against it then you would get a slap on the wrist (but, that’s not a designation thing, necessarily. It depends on your city’s bylaws).
The biggest negatives to designation is if you either plan to drastically change your exterior (like with a front-facing addition), or you want to toss your original wood sash windows in favour of vinyl. Both would be “no-no’s”. If the hypothetical proposed addition was side or rear facing, then you’d have to submit your intent in writing to your local heritage committee at the time of your building permit application and wait for comments. Again, this isn’t designation-specific, as usually this process applies to any century home, designated or not. (Again, this is in Ontario, but I’m sure BC likely has similar rules).
Basically, every home owner requires building permits to do structural work. A designated heritage house just has the potential to be turned down for major changes if the intent is to majorly alter the features that are deemed heritage. It’s typically a short list.
The perks are a substantial tax break on your property taxes (around here our taxes are very high, so it’ll save us about $2000 a year in automatic rebates!), demolition protection (this isn’t perfect but it IS an added layer of protection and hoops to jump through for a prospective builder, and acts as a deterrent), and also it helps the house maintain its heritage features, such as windows, slate roof, decorative brickwork, etc etc (where applicable. Obviously if a designated house has already lost its original windows, they wouldn’t be protected in the designation). It However does not protect against adaptive reuse, or relocation if your city council approves it.