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The owner of a Point Grey home is going to court to fight a $249,000 empty homes tax bill she was ordered to pay by the City of Vancouver.

In a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Yi Ju He, the owner of the home at 4749 Belmont Ave., says she bought it in October 2015 and in February 2018 filed a property status declaration for the year 2017 claiming an exemption from the city’s vacancy tax.

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The homeowner said she was getting the aging home rebuilt and therefore qualified for the exemption that applies to residential property unoccupied for more than six months for development purposes.

The applicable bylaw says that exemptions can be allowed for developments for which permits have been issued by the city and which in the opinion of the city’s chief building official are being carried out diligently and without unnecessary delay.

In the petition, the homeowner says that she or others on her behalf applied for development permits for the property in April 2017 and the city issued them in 2019.