Winnipeg's Vacant Buildings By-law and Empty Building Fee: What Owners Pay and How Selling Stops It
Under Winnipeg's Vacant Buildings By-law (79/2010, as amended), a building that falls under the by-law must be registered with the City, kept secured and maintained to specific standards, and charged an annual Empty Building Fee calculated as a percentage of the property's assessed value — a percentage that increases each year the building stays vacant. Inspection charges and non-compliance costs are billed on top, and anything unpaid is added to the property tax account, where it must be cleared from the sale proceeds when the home eventually sells. Selling the property — even boarded up and as-is — is what finally stops the meter.
Which Properties Get Caught by Winnipeg's Vacant Buildings By-law?
The by-law applies to buildings that sit empty and are boarded up, unsecured, or failing the City's maintenance standards. Once a building meets the by-law's definition of vacant, the owner is required to register it with the City, keep it secured to specific boarding standards, and submit to regular inspections — with the cost of those inspections billed to the owner. Registration isn't optional, and "I didn't know" isn't a defence the City accepts for long.
A house doesn't have to be a burned-out shell to get caught. The by-law reaches ordinary homes that have simply been empty too long.
Your property is likely to end up registered under the by-law if:
- It has been unoccupied for an extended period and openings are boarded, damaged, or unsecured
- Neighbours have complained and a City inspector has confirmed the building is vacant
- Utilities are disconnected or the house is visibly not being lived in or maintained
- It has fire damage, or it has been placarded or condemned as unfit for occupancy
- There have been break-ins, squatters, or repeated calls for service at the address
- A previous order — yard, maintenance, or building — went unanswered and inspections followed
Boarding itself is regulated. The City specifies how openings must be covered: properly fitted and secured materials, kept in good repair, and generally finished to blend with the building rather than raw plywood left to weather. Boarding that sags, gaps, or gets pried open triggers re-inspection — and new charges.
How Much Is the Empty Building Fee — and Why Does It Grow Every Year?
Winnipeg restructured its vacant-building charges into an annual Empty Building Fee tied to the property's assessed value. The fee is calculated as a percentage of the assessment, and the percentage steps up the longer the building stays registered as vacant — so a house that sits empty for three years pays a meaningfully higher rate in year three than it did in year one. The City adjusts the schedule from time to time, so check the City of Winnipeg's current fee schedule for exact rates rather than relying on any fixed number you've seen quoted.
The arithmetic is what surprises owners. On a house assessed at $250,000, every percentage point of assessed value is $2,500 — so a fee of even a low single-digit percentage runs into the thousands of dollars a year, and because the rate escalates, doing nothing gets more expensive every year by design. That is the point of the fee: the City wants vacant buildings occupied, demolished, or sold, not warehoused.
The Empty Building Fee isn't the whole bill, either. Mandatory inspections are charged to the owner. If the City has to attend because boarding failed or someone broke in, there are charges for that. And if crews are sent to board, clean, or secure the building because you didn't, that work is billed to you too — none of it counting as payment toward the fee itself.
What Are You Required to Maintain While the Building Sits Empty?
Registration doesn't just cost money — it comes with a standing to-do list. A vacant building has to be kept up as if the City were grading your homework every few weeks, because functionally it is.
While a building is registered as vacant, the owner remains responsible for:
- Keeping every door, window, and opening secured to the City's boarding specifications
- Maintaining that boarding — refastening, repairing, and refinishing it as it weathers or gets tampered with
- Cutting the grass and controlling weeds through the summer
- Clearing snow and ice from the sidewalks through the winter, same as an occupied home
- Removing garbage, debris, and graffiti from the property
- Cooperating with scheduled inspections and paying the associated charges
Miss any of these and the file grows: orders, fines, re-inspections, and City-performed work billed back to you. For an owner who lives out of province or is managing an estate, keeping up this list from a distance is usually the moment they realize the property is costing more than money.
What Happens If the Fees and Charges Go Unpaid?
Unpaid Empty Building Fees, inspection charges, and the cost of any work the City performs don't sit in a drawer — they're added to the property's tax account. From there they behave like unpaid property taxes: they accrue penalties, they show up on the tax certificate any buyer's lawyer will order, and if arrears run long enough the property is exposed to the City's tax sale process. A TIPP payment plan covers your regular taxes, not a growing stack of by-law charges.
This matters most at the moment of sale. In Manitoba, real estate closes through lawyers, and the transfer is registered at the Land Titles Office. Before the buyer's lawyer releases funds and registers that transfer, every charge on the tax account — taxes, fees, penalties, and City work billed to the property — has to be paid, almost always out of your sale proceeds at closing. You don't have to write a separate cheque in advance, but you can't walk away from the charges either. The equity in the house pays them; the only question is how much is left for you afterward.
Can the City of Winnipeg Take a Derelict House?
Winnipeg has tightened enforcement around derelict buildings, and the escalation ladder is real. It starts with compliance orders directing you to secure, repair, clean up, or demolish. If orders are ignored, the City can perform the work itself and bill the cost to your tax account. And for buildings that stay derelict and non-compliant long enough, the process can ultimately end with the City taking title to the property.
None of that happens overnight — there are notices, deadlines, and chances to comply at every stage. But owners who assume the letters will stop if they're ignored are wrong. Each unanswered order moves the file up the ladder, and by the later rungs your options have narrowed to complying at whatever cost, or losing the property. Selling while you still control the timeline is dramatically better than either.
If the file on your property already includes orders, our guide on selling a Winnipeg home with municipal violations explains how open orders are handled when the property changes hands.
Why Do Vacant Houses Spiral So Fast in Winnipeg?
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(204) 800-6640A vacant house in a mild climate deteriorates. A vacant house in Winnipeg gets destroyed. If the heat fails — or the account gets cut off — during a stretch of minus-30 weather, pipes freeze and split, and the spring thaw pours water through the walls. Boarded houses attract break-ins, copper theft, squatters, and fire, and vacant-building fires are a persistent problem in this city — a big part of why the by-law keeps getting stricter.
Insurance quietly makes everything worse. Most home policies restrict or void coverage once a house has been vacant beyond a short window — often around 30 days — unless you've arranged a vacancy permit or specialty vacant-property coverage, which is expensive and limited. Many owners discover only after a break-in or a burst pipe that the policy they've been paying for no longer covers anything that matters.
Almost nobody plans to own a registered vacant building. The common paths in:
- A stalled estate — probate through Manitoba's Court of King's Bench takes months, and the house sits empty while it grinds on
- A parent moves into a care home and the family home sits while the family decides what to do
- An out-of-province inheritor with no practical way to manage a Winnipeg property
- A renovation that ran out of money or momentum, leaving a gutted, unoccupiable house
- A rental trashed by tenants that the landlord can't face fixing
If a registered vacant building is draining you while you decide what to do with it, call (204) 800-6640 — we'll give you a written cash offer within 24 hours so you can weigh it against another year of fees, inspections, and winter risk.
(204) 800-6640Renovate, Hold, or Sell As-Is: Which Path Actually Costs Less?
Once a building is registered, you have three realistic exits. Here is the honest side-by-side.
Option 1: Renovate and re-occupy
To come off the vacant list, the building generally has to be brought back to occupancy standards — permitted work, inspections passed, and someone legitimately living in it.
How the renovate-to-comply path stacks up:
- Pro: you keep the property and any future upside in the neighbourhood
- Pro: a fully renovated house sells or rents at full market value
- Con: the work must be permitted and inspected — unpermitted work just creates new orders
- Con: budgets on long-vacant houses routinely run into the tens of thousands once heating, plumbing, and electrical are reopened
- Con: the Empty Building Fee and maintenance obligations continue every month the work drags on
- Con: financing is hard — lenders are wary of uninhabitable, hard-to-insure buildings
Option 2: Hold and keep paying
Some owners simply keep the registration current, pay the fee, and wait for a better moment.
How holding stacks up:
- Pro: no big decisions or construction projects required today
- Pro: defensible if occupancy is genuinely imminent — a confirmed renter or a family member moving in
- Con: an escalating annual fee, plus inspections, taxes, utilities, and insurance — if you can even get insurance
- Con: every Winnipeg winter adds frozen-pipe, break-in, and fire risk
- Con: condition and value drift down while carrying costs go up
- Con: prolonged non-compliance moves you up the enforcement ladder toward orders and City-performed work
Option 3: Sell as-is — listed or to a cash buyer
The third path is transferring the problem to someone whose business is solving it.
How selling as-is stacks up:
- Pro: the fee meter stops at closing — registration obligations and orders pass with the property
- Pro: no repairs, permits, or compliance work needed before the sale
- Pro: arrears and charges are settled from the proceeds by the lawyers at closing
- Con: as-is prices reflect condition — a boarded house draws renovators and investors, not families
- Con: listing a boarded house on MLS can be slow, since most buyers can't finance or insure it
- Con: a cash sale will net less than a full renovation could eventually return — if the renovation goes well
Our honest read: if the house is close to habitable, you have cash for the work, and you can supervise it, renovating and then listing with a REALTOR will usually net the most — we'll tell you that to your face. The as-is sale wins when the gap between the house and occupancy standards is wide: boarded openings, damaged systems, an escalating fee, and an owner without the time, money, or proximity to manage a compliance renovation.
For the fuller picture of what holding an empty house really costs, see our breakdowns of selling a vacant house in Winnipeg and the carrying costs of an empty estate home.
How Does Selling As-Is Close the File With the City?
A sale is the cleanest way out because the buyer takes the property with everything attached to it — the registration, any open orders, and the building's condition. We buy Winnipeg houses in exactly this state: boarded, registered, fire-damaged, mid-renovation, or simply empty too long. You don't clean, repair, or bring anything up to code first.
The mechanics are straightforward. We look at the property — or work from what you can tell us if you're out of province — and make a cash offer within 24 hours. The deal closes through Manitoba lawyers in as little as 7 days, typically 7 to 21. At closing, your lawyer pays the tax account — Empty Building Fees, inspection charges, and any City work billed to the property — out of the sale proceeds, the transfer registers at the Land Titles Office, and your obligations to the City end. If the property is an estate, probate through the Court of King's Bench needs to be in motion; if a spouse has rights in the home, consent under The Homesteads Act is part of the paperwork — the lawyers handle both routinely. There are no commissions or fees on our offers, and if you ask, we cover standard seller-side legal costs on most deals.
If the building has gone past vacant into placarded or condemned territory, it's still sellable — our guide to selling a condemned house in Winnipeg covers that situation, and our sell-as-is page explains how we handle properties in any condition.
The Empty Building Fee is designed to make doing nothing the most expensive option. Whether you renovate, list with a REALTOR, or sell to us, the worst plan is the one where next year's escalated fee arrives and nothing has changed. Pick a direction — and we're happy to be one of the quotes you compare while you do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Winnipeg charge for a boarded-up vacant building each year?
The Empty Building Fee is set as a percentage of the property's assessed value, and the percentage increases each year the building remains registered as vacant. On a $250,000 assessment, every percentage point is $2,500, so the annual fee typically runs into the thousands — plus inspection charges and any City-performed work billed on top. Check the City of Winnipeg's current fee schedule for exact rates, because the City adjusts them over time.
Do I have to register an empty house with the City of Winnipeg?
If the building meets the Vacant Buildings By-law's definition — empty and boarded, unsecured, or failing maintenance standards — registration is mandatory. In practice the City often identifies vacant buildings through complaints or inspections and opens the file whether or not the owner comes forward. Registering and keeping the property compliant is cheaper than being found out, because non-compliance adds orders, fines, and re-inspection charges on top of the fee.
Can the City of Winnipeg take ownership of a derelict house?
Ultimately, yes. Winnipeg's derelict-building enforcement escalates from compliance orders, to City-performed work billed to your tax account, to — for buildings that remain derelict and non-compliant long enough — a process that can end with the City taking title. It takes years and multiple ignored notices to reach that point, but it is a real endpoint. Selling before the later stages preserves your equity; losing title erases it.
Can I sell a house that has a vacant building order on it?
Yes. An open order or vacant-building registration doesn't prevent a sale — it has to be disclosed, and the buyer takes the property subject to it. Cash buyers like us purchase registered vacant buildings routinely and deal with the City after closing. What the order does affect is your buyer pool: most families and their lenders won't touch a boarded house, which is why these properties usually sell to renovators or investors.
Do vacant building fees have to be paid before the sale closes?
They're paid at closing, not before. Outstanding Empty Building Fees and related charges sit on the property's tax account, and in Manitoba the buyer's lawyer won't complete the transfer at the Land Titles Office until that account is cleared. Your lawyer pays the arrears out of your sale proceeds and remits the balance to you — no separate upfront cheque is required, as long as the equity covers the charges.
How do I get a house removed from Winnipeg's vacant buildings list?
There are essentially two routes: bring the building back to occupancy standards with someone legitimately living in it — confirmed to the City's satisfaction through inspection — or transfer the property to a new owner who will do that. Simply paying the annual fee doesn't close the file; the fee continues for as long as the building stays vacant. For most owners of long-empty houses, selling is the faster and cheaper of the two paths.
Does the Empty Building Fee still apply while I'm renovating the house?
Generally the registration and fee obligations continue until the building is actually re-occupied — a renovation in progress doesn't automatically end them. Active permits and visible progress can help your standing with inspectors, and it's worth speaking with the City's by-law office about your specific timeline. Budget as though the fee runs until occupancy, because a stalled renovation is one of the most common ways these files drag on for years.
Will my home insurance cover a vacant house in Winnipeg?
Often not. Most standard policies restrict or void coverage once a home has been vacant beyond a short window — commonly around 30 days — unless you've arranged a vacancy permit or dedicated vacant-property coverage, which is costly and usually excludes the risks that matter most, like vandalism and frozen pipes. If your house has been empty for months, call your broker before assuming you're covered; many owners only find out after the loss.
What happens if I ignore a compliance order from the City of Winnipeg?
The file escalates. The City can charge for re-inspections, issue fines, and send its own crews to board, clean, or secure the building — billing every cost to your property tax account. Continued non-compliance on a derelict building moves you toward the end of the enforcement ladder, where demolition or the City taking title become real possibilities. Orders never expire quietly; each one you ignore makes the eventual resolution more expensive.
Can I sell a vacant Winnipeg house if I live in another province?
Yes, and it's common — out-of-province inheritors are one of the largest groups we buy from. The whole transaction can run remotely: we assess the property locally, the purchase agreement is signed electronically or by courier, and your Manitoba lawyer handles the closing and Land Titles registration without you travelling. Fees and arrears are paid from the proceeds at closing, and the City file transfers with the property.
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(204) 800-6640Written by Jay — SellMyHomeCash.ca
Local Winnipeg cash home buyer · 50+ homes purchased · No fees, no commissions