Canada

Sorry to hear about what you're going through, breakups are never a good time. I truly wish you well and hope you can get back on the track you want to be on.

There would certainly have to be a system in place, and special circumstances will always happen. Bottom line, it would primarily be meant for people or corporations who buy up a house/condo/apartment complex, and let it sit vacant until the market goes up and they get the rent they want or sell it for a good profit. If it sits vacant like that for say, 6 months, fees start accruing. Ideally the fees would be high enough that keeping it vacant would be a significant deterrent, thus forcing the person or company to either sell it, maybe at a loss, or rent it lower.

For example, there's a brand new apartment building near where I live that's been majority vacant for over a year since it was built. They want $3500 a month, and no one around here can afford it. I live in a province that has a cap on rental increases, and this company clearly doesn't want to rent at the high-end of affordable rate of around $2500 a month, and only be able to increase at 5% per year. They'd rather burn the money waiting for the market to go up to sell, other rentals to match what they want, or the cap to go away.

Another example would be someone/company with a lot of money buys a house to flip. During the reno the market dips so they'd be selling at a loss. Rather than rent it and have to deal with tenant laws, they have the money to wait it out as vacant for a year or two or more until the market goes back up. There's an argument to be made to exclude the reno time (though there would need to be systems in place to prevent abuse of the timeframe), but once it's liveable they have 6 months to rent or sell it before paying a monthly vacancy fee. If after 6 months they can't afford the fee and would have to sell at a loss, that's kind of the point. Pivot away from real estate (primarily dwellings) be investment vehicles.