Anybody have luck challenging the assessment? Tips and tricks?
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation
- Thread starter BNKN
- Start date
I was looking into this too. I think a start would be to compare your house with other houses in the neighbourhood. But they do the assessment on other houses so i see a bias already
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eljay
Well-known member
I'm in the middle of it. Didn't go the online route. I phoned them, told them what I wanted to challenge, they referred me to what to fill out and send to the city and what to send them. Both sides have been pretty good at getting back to me (both gave me direct phone numbers). Quite surprised. I started about a month ago, and they seemed bored at the time (lady from MPAC phoned me back about 5 seconds after I left her a voice mail once), but I'm sure as the deadline approaches they'll get busier.
Oh tips. MPAC lady told me that it's 100% based on comp sales. Look at what they are using as comps - they have this on your account online. Mine were all from sales in 2010 and 2011. I got my realtor friend to send me all the sales nearby from 2012. Used those. Haven't heard back yet.
Just write out a memo type document with all the details in point form of how you draw different conclusions from theirs.
In my case, a condo, I can use sq footage, no. of bathrooms, parking spots, lockers, no. of bedrooms, how many floors up/dn, south vs. north facing. Try and estimate the value attributed to each thing from other sales and discount from yours if you don't have.
Oh tips. MPAC lady told me that it's 100% based on comp sales. Look at what they are using as comps - they have this on your account online. Mine were all from sales in 2010 and 2011. I got my realtor friend to send me all the sales nearby from 2012. Used those. Haven't heard back yet.
Just write out a memo type document with all the details in point form of how you draw different conclusions from theirs.
In my case, a condo, I can use sq footage, no. of bathrooms, parking spots, lockers, no. of bedrooms, how many floors up/dn, south vs. north facing. Try and estimate the value attributed to each thing from other sales and discount from yours if you don't have.
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It already sounds like I need to invest time and effort, which they're probably counting most people won't. I feel they might have over estimated 60grand, it sounds like a lot but bottom line is how much would that affect taxes.
House prices are all over the map here, not a lot of consistency in quality and size. I wonder how often sellers get the $ that MPAC claims the house is worth?
House prices are all over the map here, not a lot of consistency in quality and size. I wonder how often sellers get the $ that MPAC claims the house is worth?
eljay
Well-known member
Like anything yes it is a test of resolve.
Basic total tax on residential is 0.7711981%. That's $462 on $60k per year in perpetuity. At 3% interest rate it's over $15,000.
What's it worth to you?
My place was overvalued by about 25%. There were errors in the assessment that caused additional inflation as well.
When it comes to taxes I'll fight to the death over $1 but I'll drop the same amount in the tip jar at the coffee shop. That's just me and where my values are.
Basic total tax on residential is 0.7711981%. That's $462 on $60k per year in perpetuity. At 3% interest rate it's over $15,000.
What's it worth to you?
My place was overvalued by about 25%. There were errors in the assessment that caused additional inflation as well.
When it comes to taxes I'll fight to the death over $1 but I'll drop the same amount in the tip jar at the coffee shop. That's just me and where my values are.
I fought them twice for this reason ^^^^ and WON.
Man, it felt great both times to get a refund check back from the City, and great to know they won't be dinging me for that extra value in the coming years.
Get a law firm with an actual real estate lawyer, we spent just shy of 80k total on an independent property evaluation from Deloitte (thats who the town of Oakville and MPAC often use) and various legal fees. MPAC doesn't like it if you get real lawyers, but we were working on rates for a million + property.
I know everybody hates on lawyers, sometimes you need one. It worked out well for us with significant savings.
What is this? A crank call?? No lawyers!! I'd rather swing for murder I didn't commit than hire a lawyer. How about one of them classic car appraiser guys? I could shoot him a C-note.
Not my favorite idea either, but we were staring at an annual property tax of just under 80k, and with licensing vs leasing and possibly reclassification of the property it was time to bring in a smart guy. with a nice suit. and a cool car and $285 an hour to talk about my problems.
Would you be able to post this direct phone number. Save us the hassle of playing phone tag with these scam artists. I too feel that they over assessed my house by $97000! I haven't upgraded anything in the house since I moved in 10 years ago. I would never be able to sell the house for the assessed value unless I invested a lot of money into the house which I don't have.
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eljay
Well-known member
Just call them. Tell them your problem and they tell you what to do. They'll probably just give you their number to call back to follow up if you have questions. It was all pretty painless. I haven't gotten a resolution, but my filing is all done, in, confirmed to have been received, and they called me back and said they'll have it done in a couple weeks and for me to call back if I don't hear anything.
That being said, you probably have to have a logical case for why their assessment is too high. It's not going to be good enough if you just tell them you think it is too high because you don't like paying money. They already know that.
Like I said before, get all your comparable sales for the past year. These are actual prices of your neighbors homes sold in the past year. Use descriptors to get a gauge on where the value of your home lies relative to those ones. If it's the nicest house on the block well, good luck!
Tip from another person: My boss is doing the same thing. It's as painless for him as for me. He noticed the comps they were using for him were all in a different school district, with higher school rankings. That alone got more than 50k cut off the value of his home.
And I'm wondering why people pay up in real estate for a good public school when the differential could just be used for a better private school.
That being said, you probably have to have a logical case for why their assessment is too high. It's not going to be good enough if you just tell them you think it is too high because you don't like paying money. They already know that.
Like I said before, get all your comparable sales for the past year. These are actual prices of your neighbors homes sold in the past year. Use descriptors to get a gauge on where the value of your home lies relative to those ones. If it's the nicest house on the block well, good luck!
Tip from another person: My boss is doing the same thing. It's as painless for him as for me. He noticed the comps they were using for him were all in a different school district, with higher school rankings. That alone got more than 50k cut off the value of his home.
And I'm wondering why people pay up in real estate for a good public school when the differential could just be used for a better private school.
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johnp
Well-known member
in GTA you go to
www.aboutmyproperty.ca
and register using your roll no. and an access key which I think I got in the mail with my notice.
You can enter the reasons online for reconsidering. Consistency with actual nearby sales is a biggie, assuming like specifications.
Making sure that you're not overpaying is a big deal since taxes affect your property values.
I would never hire a lawyer for something like this since it's not a legal matter. This is a commercial matter. For the life of me I don't understand why people hire lawyers to do non-legal work.
www.aboutmyproperty.ca
and register using your roll no. and an access key which I think I got in the mail with my notice.
You can enter the reasons online for reconsidering. Consistency with actual nearby sales is a biggie, assuming like specifications.
Making sure that you're not overpaying is a big deal since taxes affect your property values.
I would never hire a lawyer for something like this since it's not a legal matter. This is a commercial matter. For the life of me I don't understand why people hire lawyers to do non-legal work.
Mine was a bit unique and a commercial matter with a legal overtone, short version since the process took two yrs, we had entered into an agreement with a property and it was suggested we license the property , two acres of waterfront, as opposed to a lease as it had huge tax savings. After the municipality and we had signed the deal for 50yrs, MPAC rejected the deal claiming it set precident for any property in the province that wished to be entitled to tax deferals. It meant our taxes would go from $30k to about $80K and increase to 100k within 10 yrs.
I couldn't imagine not utilizing a lawyer, I had two lawyers ( no longer practicing so off the clock) reviewing paperwork and language. Regular people would get buried in the paperwork.
Did your lawyer look like this guy?
[video=youtube;j3DY1_zijgA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3DY1_zijgA[/video]
[video=youtube;bBeQO1nBThQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBeQO1nBThQ[/video]
