Municipal Tax Certificates are an essential part of any real estate transaction, providing to both the buyer and the seller a guarantee of the property’s tax status, ensuring that all arrears and municipal charges have been addressed prior to closing the transaction.  Traditionally, these certificates are obtained by slow, manual, paper-based processes.  For such a critical and time-sensitive document, there must be a better and more efficient way.

Dye & Durham, through their subsidiary and portal API Canada (APIC), operates Tax Certificates Online (TCOL), which provides online access to the tax certificates from a variety of municipalities. Each year, more than 90 communities deliver over 150,000 tax certificates to Lawyers and Notaries who need these reports.

TCOL is a fast, convenient way to obtain municipal tax certificates electronically. Lawyers and Notaries enter the property identifier (e.g. Parcel Identification (PID) or Roll/ARN number) and TCOL returns the tax certificate from any participating municipality.

Customers prefer to use the service as they no longer have to deal with multiple municipalities independently to get access to tax certificates – TCOL provides a centralized, single point of access to obtain these documents electronically. This feature greatly improves the turnaround time and effort for our customers to access this information.  Tax Certificates may be purchased by Credit Card through Dye & Durham’s website or (in BC) through the myLTSA portal using a deposit account.

Cities prefer to use the TCOL Service as they can deliver their municipal tax certificates to a wider audience with less effort and improve turnaround times for requests. Dye & Durham also manages the entire revenue collection process (without charging handling fees) for these stakeholders and guarantees payments overnight – improving cash flow and process efficiency.

Dye & Durham has a dedicated Help Desk and Administration Staff that are able to assist all TCOL users in the order, payment, and fulfillment process for tax certificates.

Benefits

The municipalities that participate in Tax Certificates Online receive a number of beneficial services to better serve their customers and reduce their overhead:

• Customer service calls are handled by TCOL and free up municipal staff to concentrate on more important matters.
• Customer account management takes care of administrative tasks such as setting up accounts, adding new users and providing sign-on support.
• Financial services handle the collection of fees and deposits funds directly into municipal bank accounts.
• Increases revenue as payments made from Dye & Durham do not incur charges or credit card transaction fees.
• Increased security is available for Municipalities who deliver exclusively through Tax Certificates Online.

Customer Feedback

“The District of Saanich estimates that participation in TCOL results in a staff savings of 10%.”
District of Saanich

“The City of Vancouver finds that using TCOL has given staff more time to focus on the other needs of residents, and is in line with our goals to provide excellent effective service overall.”
City of Vancouver

“With TCOL, our clerks have more time to do other tasks.”
City of Victoria

“Since we went live we’ve had only one direct request for a tax certificate and that notary just forgot that we were available on-line. We did virtually nothing to advertise it. Amazing.”
City of Pitt Meadows

“Quick, easy, and simple to use. It’s right there on the screen. Sometimes with the old way, delivery from the city was delayed and faxes were not always clear.”
Brenda from Simpson Notaries in Chilliwack BC

“Our staff find the tax certificate requests easy to process and quick to obtain results.”
Kathy from Spagnuolo & Company in Coquitlam BC

“Having the ability to receive our Tax Certificates online is a feature that we utilize many times throughout our day on a very regular basis. Logging in to one facility to obtain all of our Certificates with the touch of a button for Tax Certificates throughout British Columbia has alleviated much time and effort.”
Shannon from Partners Consulting in Surrey BC

For more information visit https://apiccanada.com/tcol

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