A Canadian city council has considered letters of credit (L/Cs) a good tool for enabling a bylaw amendment to be passed that had previously been considered too open to abuse.

The amendment will enable homeowners who rebuild a new home on their land to postpone the demolition of their old home until their new one is built.

Previous bylaw

Residents of Campbell River who wanted to erect a new home on the site of their existing one were previously required to pull down their old building before starting construction of a new one.

The rationale for that legislation was that the city council was concerned that residents could, on a large enough plot of land, build a new home and leave the old one standing.

L/C solution

But to prevent that particular abuse, Campbell City Council have amended the bylaw so that a plot can hold two homes until both are completed - provided an L/C or similar security is put up to guarantee that the older home is demolished once the new one is completed.

The council was persuaded to amend the bylaw by requests from the public.

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