It’s been a long 4-year battle for a Thunder Bay man to get property taxes lowered on his mother’s Walker’s Lake home.
Keith Scott tells us after an arbitration hearing with the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation recently, he finally got the $8,000 bill lowered for a property worth $186,000.
“This isn’t a win for us, we’re not taking a victory lap. We’ve got a reasonable reduction of up to $1,700, but it’s still a horrendous amount of tax to pay for a small, 12-hundred square foot home,” says Scott.
He compares that to $3.5-million Georgian Bay homes paying $6,800. “If you believe you’ve been wronged, you’ve got to have all the facts and figures, you’ve got to put your head together, you’ve got to ask for other peoples’ interpretation of value. But you can’t be afraid to take these people on.”
MPAC has responded to our request for comment:
We are committed to the accuracy of our assessments and working with property owners to address their property assessment concerns.
At MPAC, we’re responsible for assessing and classifying more than five million properties in Ontario in compliance with the Assessment Act and regulations set by the Government of Ontario. Municipalities determine their revenue requirements, set municipal tax rates and collect property taxes.
The Assessment Review Board is an independent body that adjudicates appeals of MPAC’s assessed values. Every Residential property owner can file an appeal to the Assessment Review Board after going through the Request for Reconsideration process if they disagree with the assessed value or classification of their property.
Each year MPAC updates property information as a result of building permits and regularly works with property owners to address property assessment concerns. We take our commitment to working with property owners and stakeholder seriously.
