I saw this on REALTOR.org Impact Fees , but I thought impact fees are only like issued to builders or developers, to bring city services like fire and police to a development. Why would they be given to homeowners? Does this happen often?

Infrastructure improvements.

Yes.

Oh, okay. I've only heard of developers getting impact fees. The only example I could think of locally was when the city of Henderson made a deal with Dell Webb, to build a fire station and buy the trucks and the city would staff it. I'd be willing to bet there have been more, but I havn't found out about any.

Thank you!

I guess the issue is, that the developer/builder is passing the impact fee on to the home buyer, by increasing the cost of homes, and the developer/builder says, the municipality does not have the right to assess impact fees.

Hey, I really misread that. Where it says homebuilders, I thought it said Homeowners. LoL!!!

Developers or cities or any taxing district can have impact fees. In our area when some smaller cities decided to hook up to the district sewer plant... all properties in that area had Sewer Impact Fees added to their tax bill.

Same for one larger city who found they needed an emergency replacement of water and sewer lines in a large section of the city due to corrosion problems... water and sewer impact fees were added to both the utilities billing and the city taxes.

Storm water drainage was improved in several communities and all properties had impact fees added to several bills to cover the cost.

While they may be most noted as impacting newer developements... they are also standard practice for major improvements determined to be needed in long term developed area.

These can be a problem for real estate agents. In the City with the emergency water and sewer line replacements... existing home owners had the opportunity to prorate the cost over 5 years but if they transfered the property... the full amount remaining was then due on sale. $4,000 surprise at the closing table could be a real problem for both buyers and sellers.... not to speak of an uninformed agent.