A municipality applied for court confirmation of emergency building orders relating to a failed residential septic system and sought recovery of remediation costs to be added to the property tax roll under the Building Code Act and Municipal Act.
The court held it lacked jurisdiction to confirm the municipality’s orders because statutory service and procedural requirements under the Building Code Act had not been complied with.
The court nevertheless found the septic system had failed and that the municipality reasonably incurred pumping costs to mitigate sewage seepage.
Fees related to an engineering report were not recoverable because the municipality unreasonably delayed disclosing the report to the homeowner.
Judgment was granted only for the septic pumping costs, which were ordered to be added to the property’s tax roll as a priority lien.
