world19News #137 |
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world19News This e-mail is going to people on the mailing list for world19. If you don't want to receive further notices, please reply to this e-mail with "remove" in the subject. Let us know if you prefer to receive this in "plain text" format. Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested. A few post-election notes: In this issue:
1. PROPERTY ASSESSMENT & MUNICIPAL TAXES It's
that time again. Average residential property assesments across Toronto are up by an average of 14% this year, which likely means that anyone whose assessment increased by (for example) 20% since the last re-asssement 2 years ago should expect a property tax increase of 6% based on MPAC's work. (Any overall city tax rate increase, expected to be in the area of 2% will be on top of that). There are, as always, many highly contentious issues, including the legitmacy of basing municipal tax revenue on highly-volatile property values; the provincially-imposed restriction on Toronto that prevents the city from raising taxes on businesses and other property classes; and the methodology itself that MPAC uses for property assessment. Last week, we received the following letter from a concerned resident of Bloor West Village. He raises a number of issues about MPAC and its process, and encourages local residents to band together. If you would like to get involved, or would like to contact
the writer of the following letter, email world19 (mailto: world19@world19.com) and we'll be happy to pass your
comments and contact information on. Subject: MUNICIPAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENT CORPORATION - A WOLF
IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING Hi Neighbour, During the second week of November the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) mailed out to all residential property owners in the City of Toronto a two-page document entitled "Property Assessment Notice 2003. " Accompanying the Property Assessment Notice was a brochure with the misleading caveat, "It is our responsibility to ensure your assessed value is accurate. Our job is to classify your property and assess its value, not to determine your property taxes." On its face this statement sounds reasonable enough but the reality may be somewhat different. When MPAC says that it seeks an accurate assessment of your property they are not talking about the price that you would actually get, "or fair market value," were you to have sold it as of June 30, 2003, which is the claimed date of the assessment. I live in the Bloor West Village and was shocked when I received my Property Assessment Notice 2003. My new neighbour next door was also shocked and perplexed since his Property Assessment Notice assessed his property at $90,000 more than he had paid for it when he purchased it this past May following a "bidding war" when he tendered his offer to purchase. The purchase closed in early July. Judging from the inquiries that I have made around the neighbourhood, MPAC's assessed values have little to do with the "fair market value" of your property and mine. According to the Assessment Act, value in relation to your property means the amount of money that would be realized if the property was sold at arm's length by a willing seller to a willing buyer. While that definition is the same as "fair market value", MPAC isn't really applying that test. My new neighbour was a willing buyer from a willing seller at arm's length, but MPAC booted up the value of his property by approximately 20 percent! What's been happening is that every other year for the past several years, and now annually, MPAC has been boosting the "assessed values" which have in combination added up to big numbers. In my case these successive increases have added up to over SIXTY PERCENT in four years. In our neighbourhood there is reason to believe that MPAC's assessed values have probably been overstated by 20 percent. MPAC says that they are not "determining your property taxes." That's wishful thinking. In Toronto, the City determines your tax bill by applying a "mill rate" to your assessed value. Most people don't know what a mill rate is and for most of us it's a deep dark secret. Basically it's a number which is used as a multiplier to every thousand dollars of "assessed value." In Toronto, the history of the mill rate is that it goes up and not down. The reality is that when MPAC overstates the value of your property by 20%, your property taxes are going to go up by 20% — if the mill rate does not change. Of course it does change every year when Toronto sets its budget and says that it has to boost taxes! So it increases the mill rate and your taxes in 2004 can and likely will go up by 20%, if you are over assessed, plus the increased mill rate. When residents get their Property Assessment Notice they are invited to seek a "Request for Reconsideration." You have to give MPAC detailed information as to why you object to their assessment. Bear in mind that MPAC believes that they don't have to give you any information as to why your "assessed value" has gone up. What usually happens is that MPAC will offer to shave a few thousand dollars off their assessment which has nothing to do with fair market value. At this point you are about to be manipulated. You are really dealing with a wolf in sheep's clothing. Why? If you accept their offer of a very modest reduction, you will have to sign settlement papers which say that you confirm the settlement value which they have assessed. The reality is that you are being played for a sucker. Next year MPAC will send you a "Property Assessment Notice 2004" and they will set out a further increase. Guess what? It will be higher than the number to which you objected this year, quite possibly by a country mile. Having signed the agreement this year, in most cases you will be hard pressed to claim any lower figure. If their assessment is ten percent higher, MPAC will ask how you can object when you agreed to an earlier, albeit bogus, valuation. This is not a fanciful fear. Another neighbour made such a deal in the last cycle with MPAC. Guess what? He just got his Property Assessment Notice 2003 in which they increased his assessment by $100,000, or 27% since the base line assessment calculated two years ago. In retrospect this neighbour realizes he was taken in by a Trojan horse. If you can't reach a realistic accommodation with MPAC in their "Request for Consideration" — and chances are that you won't — your next avenue is to appeal to the Assessment Review Board by March 31, 2004. Of course, most property owners won't appeal because they are afraid of the process. Besides, up until March 31st they will not have experienced an increase in their taxes for 2004 to which the Property Assessment Notice 2003, applies. Well, don't be fooled. To discourage appeals, this is the reason why the Toronto budget and tax increase is not set until at least April every year. That's when you get whacked and by then it's too late to appeal! As neighbours, some of us have got together in order to inform the neighbourhood of the rip-off that is ongoing by MPAC. If every owner were to seek a "Request for Reconsideration" by December 31, 2003 and then appeal to the Assessment Review Tribunal by March 31, 2004, this entire unjust system could be brought to a halt. As it is, MPAC will not tell you much about your neighbourhood assessment and they will never disclose to you actual market sales in the neighbourhood. They really don't want you to know about them and when they get to the Assessment Review Board they will just trot out their own neighbourhood assessments which are based on the same nonsense as your assessment. In other words you have to do the work! Which is why we want to put together a neighbourhood group of owners to take on MPAC and through strength in numbers to make them retreat and to be honest. There is the old adage that a banana which is separated from the bunch gets peeled. That's what MPAC wants to do with you. If you care to get involved in our neighbourhood group or to set up your own group please email me and also pass this email on to others to set up their own groups. What I have outlined is only the half of it!
2. "MEOW CLUB" DEVELOPMENT - OMB Hearing
Dec. 8 Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing: Starts Monday December 8th, 2003 At 10:00 a.m. 655 Bay Street, 16th floor Plan to attend even if it’s just for a short time The Board needs to see the community does NOT support the two 19 and 20 storey condominium towers proposed for the site Representatives of The Swansea Area Ratepayers Association, the Ripley Area Residents Group Ltd. and the Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association will be participating in the hearing. They need your support!! A further notice will be posted giving the date and time for
the session at which any resident may comment on the development. Plan to come out and
have your say.
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