Billionaire Chinese parliamentarian Zheng Jianjiang’s wife wins lawsuit against vacancy tax on US$21m Vancouver home
- A Canadian judge quashed the US$191,000 tax for leaving the home empty, saying it ‘did not meet the requirements of procedural fairness’
- The home has since been demolished to make way for a new 31,393 sq ft mansion
A Canadian court has quashed a massive tax bill on a C$26.8 million (US$21 million) Vancouver home owned by the wife of billionaire Chinese parliamentarian Zheng Jianjiang, ordering the city to reconsider whether she deserved to be hit with the C$249,313.67 (US$191,000) charge for leaving the home empty.
The lawsuit by He Yiju had been closely watched in Vancouver, where the city introduced the tax on empty homes in 2017 in a bid to improve affordability and to deter speculators from leaving homes vacant.
Lawyers for He, who bought the property in 2015, argued that the dilapidated home that had stood on prestigious Belmont Avenue, one of the most expensive streets in Canada, was uninhabitable and contaminated with asbestos and large amounts of human and animal faeces.
Permits to demolish and rebuild had been sought in early 2017, but were not issued until 2019.
The home has since been razed to make way for a new 31,393 sq ft mansion.