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Here’s when you might be able to apply for lower property taxes Aug 8th
Owning a home comes with a long list of expenses that go beyond a monthly mortgage, whether that’s replacing an old roof, paying for home insurance, or keeping up with climbing property taxes. While many costs are fixed, experts say there might be some wiggle room on property taxes to get the .... More »
Money and the price of indecision Jul 23rd
When we moved to Canada and bought our first car, insurance was simply another item on a very long checklist. I knew nothing about the Canadian insurance market, so I did what many newcomers do: lean on someone trustworthy. My father-in-law recommended the brokerage firm he had been using for years,.... More »
How to fund accessible home renovations in Canada
– moneysense.ca
My house, as I told my insurance broker recently, is the Canadian housing equivalent of ancient. Built in the 1910s in Saskatoon, this house has many foibles. To hang pictures, I have to use wood screws lest regular nails bounce off of the layers and layers of paint. My basement is a little more than a horror movie-esque concrete box. Perhaps its most damning feature until last year was its lack of a wheelchair lift. One grant, and more than $20,000 later, that has been rectified. The administrative costs of that effort, however, are something I’m still wrestling with.
The high cost of accessibility
The financial barriers to accessible home renovation are astronomical, and the procedural landscape when it comes to these sorts of projects varies wildly from province to province. Funding can come from insurance companies, governments, tax credits, and non-profits. None of it is easy to secure, and that’s before you go through the lengthy process of actually getting an accessible renovation started…
