The house that used to sit on our lot had an attached garage that was accessed from the side street. There is still a slope in the sidewalk for getting up the driveway. Before our DP will be granted, we needed to provide a $5500 security deposit to guarantee that we will have the sidewalk restored.
I went down to city hall today to drop off the bank draft.
Step 1. Pay city parking authority for 45 minutes of street parking.
Step 2. Find the building permit office.
Step 3. Figure out which line to wait in. It was reminiscent of a passport office. Hundreds of people sitting in chairs waiting to be called up to the counters. But there were 2 front counters, assigning numbers to people before taking a seat. One of these counters had about 6 people in line. The 2nd had nobody waiting, but the sign was labelled "pick up and drop off". I was only "dropping off" a cheque, so I went to this counter first. I explained that I needed to pay a security deposit to ensure my sidewalk was repaired. The guy looked confused. I explained that it was a condition of the release of my DP. He suggested I wait at the other front counter, with a comment that, "I've never heard of anyone having to do that before."
Step 4. Wait.
Step 5. Hand the letter from the city that says we need to provide a deposit to the woman at the counter. She says, "Oh, that's Urban Development. That's the other office down the hall, where it says 'cashier'." Gee, it would have been nice if the first guy could have told me that.
Step 6. Find the Cashier's office.
Step 7. Wait.
Step 8. Hand the letter to the guy, pointing to the 4th page where it explains what I need to pay.
Step 9. Fill in contact information form.
Step 10. He looks through his procedure binder to figure out how to process this payment. He says he doesn't know anything about this, and he has to go get help.
Step 11. Wait.
Step 12. The help comes out and she's started reading the letter from the beginning, and stopped at the part where we have to pay $100 if we want to appeal the DP decision.
Step 13. Point out the paragraph on pg 4 where it explains the sidewalk security deposit.
Step 14. She notices that this is related to "Roads", and they don't take payments for "Roads". But she has a friend who works in Roads, and she'll call her for me to find out what to do.
Step 15. Wait.
Step 16. The friend in Roads doesn't answer her phone.
Step 17. Helper woman tries reading the letter again, and once again found the comment about appealing the DP with the $100 fee. So she suggests I could pay that.
Step 18. Explain that it's not a $100 fee, it's a $5500 fee.
Step 19. Helper woman and original cashier look at each other helplessly.
Step 20. Other cashier, who has been serving other residents this whole time, overhears. "$5500? Is this a security deposit for a development permit?" Yes!
Step 21. Other cashier points out the page in the procedure binder that details "security deposits".
Step 22. They take the 7 pages of development permit information that the city sent to me, and photo copy it. This includes the page with nothing on it but my contact information that I just filled in.
Step 23. He hand writes a receipt for the $5500 bank draft.
Step 24. He asks me my contact info, which I have filled out on the paper, so he can enter it in the computer.
Step 25. The computer prints out a receipt for the $5500 bank draft.
Step 26. He hands me back the documents he has photocopied, including the contact information form. You know, in case I don't remember my phone number. The 2 receipts are now stapled to my documents.
Step 27. Pray to the gods of house building that this $5500 eventually goes to someone who knows what to do with it.
Step 28. Thank the gods of house building that the 45 minutes of parking fees was just barely sufficient, that you didn't need to go add more, and you don't have a parking ticket that would now need to be paid at the city cashier's office.
I went down to city hall today to drop off the bank draft.
Step 1. Pay city parking authority for 45 minutes of street parking.
Step 2. Find the building permit office.
Step 3. Figure out which line to wait in. It was reminiscent of a passport office. Hundreds of people sitting in chairs waiting to be called up to the counters. But there were 2 front counters, assigning numbers to people before taking a seat. One of these counters had about 6 people in line. The 2nd had nobody waiting, but the sign was labelled "pick up and drop off". I was only "dropping off" a cheque, so I went to this counter first. I explained that I needed to pay a security deposit to ensure my sidewalk was repaired. The guy looked confused. I explained that it was a condition of the release of my DP. He suggested I wait at the other front counter, with a comment that, "I've never heard of anyone having to do that before."
Step 4. Wait.
Step 5. Hand the letter from the city that says we need to provide a deposit to the woman at the counter. She says, "Oh, that's Urban Development. That's the other office down the hall, where it says 'cashier'." Gee, it would have been nice if the first guy could have told me that.
Step 6. Find the Cashier's office.
Step 7. Wait.
Step 8. Hand the letter to the guy, pointing to the 4th page where it explains what I need to pay.
Step 9. Fill in contact information form.
Step 10. He looks through his procedure binder to figure out how to process this payment. He says he doesn't know anything about this, and he has to go get help.
Step 11. Wait.
Step 12. The help comes out and she's started reading the letter from the beginning, and stopped at the part where we have to pay $100 if we want to appeal the DP decision.
Step 13. Point out the paragraph on pg 4 where it explains the sidewalk security deposit.
Step 14. She notices that this is related to "Roads", and they don't take payments for "Roads". But she has a friend who works in Roads, and she'll call her for me to find out what to do.
Step 15. Wait.
Step 16. The friend in Roads doesn't answer her phone.
Step 17. Helper woman tries reading the letter again, and once again found the comment about appealing the DP with the $100 fee. So she suggests I could pay that.
Step 18. Explain that it's not a $100 fee, it's a $5500 fee.
Step 19. Helper woman and original cashier look at each other helplessly.
Step 20. Other cashier, who has been serving other residents this whole time, overhears. "$5500? Is this a security deposit for a development permit?" Yes!
Step 21. Other cashier points out the page in the procedure binder that details "security deposits".
Step 22. They take the 7 pages of development permit information that the city sent to me, and photo copy it. This includes the page with nothing on it but my contact information that I just filled in.
Step 23. He hand writes a receipt for the $5500 bank draft.
Step 24. He asks me my contact info, which I have filled out on the paper, so he can enter it in the computer.
Step 25. The computer prints out a receipt for the $5500 bank draft.
Step 26. He hands me back the documents he has photocopied, including the contact information form. You know, in case I don't remember my phone number. The 2 receipts are now stapled to my documents.
Step 27. Pray to the gods of house building that this $5500 eventually goes to someone who knows what to do with it.
Step 28. Thank the gods of house building that the 45 minutes of parking fees was just barely sufficient, that you didn't need to go add more, and you don't have a parking ticket that would now need to be paid at the city cashier's office.
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