An Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh councillor has asked municipal staff to look at permits that are issued after work is done.
Roger Watt believes a contractor could be held responsible, to some degree, for doing work on a property before the owner acquires the proper permits.
He says he's seen it happen in a number of cases and the usual solution is to charge the property owner three times the normal fee for a permit. But Watt adds the contractor usually is not held responsible.
Watt says he doesn't really have any answers, but he'd like staff to see if there isn't some way to close that loop hole. And he maintains the contractor often knows more about local regulation than the property owner.
