Property Tax Increase Notice

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Fairhamilton, some things to consider to determine if you may have grounds for appeal:

Firstly, go online and see the assassment for houses in your neighbourhood. Assessments are based on the average value of the property in your neighbourhood, not on purchase price. If your home is assessed at a value greater than the area average, you mat have grounds for appeal.

Secondly, compare your property's qualities to those of your neighbouring property. If your assessment is higher than your neighbours, it may be due to a larger lot, larger home, or higher quality home (i.e. all brick 2-storey vs. bungalow with aluminum siding). However, if your home or property is smaller than neighbouring homes but you have the same assessment value, you may want to appeal.

It is not unusual for a house to be assessed at a greater value than its purchase price. Remember, when market value assessment was introduced in Hamilton, the real estate in the lower city was seriously undervalued. As the resale averages rise so will the assessments. In areas where prices of late have increased dramatically, the assessment would leap as well. Believe me I know, my own assessment arrived and it has increased over 2005 by 25%.

You may want to invite a realtor over to do a walk-through and give you an estimate on the price of your home. You may have been in the right place at the right time when you bought. Perhaps you did get a great deal for that area.

If you have gone over these considerations and feel you have been wrongly assessed, start of by putting in a request for reconsideration. I would go that route before an appeal seeing that a reconsideration request isn't going to cost you anything. An appeal will cost you $75, and you can always do an appeal if the reconsideration request is denied.

Good luck with it...

Comparisons have little to do with it.

You simply need to prove that your house isn't worth what MPAC thinks it is.

They don't care if your neighbours house is undervalued. At least that was my experience.

[SteelTown]

My parents house value literally doubled since they moved in about 15 years ago.

[raisethehammer]

wow...interesting stories...I always though the assessment was less than the actual value.
Mine always has been, although it went up by 22% last time. I'll have to look for my new assessment this week.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by oldcoote

ummm, no its not.

I might be the only person whose assessment is bang on market value.

And mine went up 47% during the last assessment. I appealed and lost.

And yes, I am still pissed about it.

Why do you think you lost? I mean apart from the appeal process most likely being stacked against individuals.

Did they give you a reason as to why they felt your property was assessed appropriately?

[adam]

My increase was 30%. I'm between Queen and Bay south. Anyone else around there have similar astronomical increase? It was previously undervalued and now arguable overvalued. Isn't it convenient they did the reassess just as the market has reached its peak!

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

Why do you think you lost? I mean apart from the appeal process most likely being stacked against individuals.

Did they give you a reason as to why they felt your property was assessed appropriately?

The problem is that my property is fairly assessed.

But most of my neighbours are underassessed. So for some reason I'm paying my "fair share", but everyone else is getting a break.

I was told those are not grounds for appeal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for paying my fair share, I just find this fair market value process to be completely arbitrary. It would be better if they hired a local real estate agent to provide the assessments. Instead, it's some guy in Whitby who goes by your square footage and recent improvements, as opposed to neighbourhood character. You pay more if you own an updated house in an iffy location than you do if you own an original house in a great location.

Bottom line, don't get a building permit. You'll pay through the nose for it.

[SteelTown]

I calculated it and my parent’s house jumped 63% increase. Live in West Mount area. When the Linc opened (moved during construction) the house value jumped literally 25% overnight. The rest came from steady increase in overall house value in the area.

[BrianE]

Mine has increased $31000 between jan 1 2005 and jan 1 2008. $122k - $153k. Now, I paid $155k for my house in 2006 so their assesment of $153k is on the low side but still fair in my opinion.

What I like about this new process is that I won't be on the hook for the $31k all at once, my assessment will increase around 6% each year for the next 3 years until it hits $153k. This is much more manageable.

Paying taxes blows, but at least now the process is much more fair than it used to be. And that's more important to me.

It's also very open and accountable now. If you log into the mpac.ca site and use the 'aboutmyproperty' feature you can see how they arrived at your assed value. And you can also review up to 25 other properties at once and compare your assessment. And a bonus, you can see what your neighbors paid for their house when they bought it. One of my neighbours paid $95000 for his identical house and lot in 2004... man if only I was in a position to buy then, that would have been sweet.

They take into account a number of different variables and in my case have come up with what I think is a fair value for my property.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by BrianE

It's also very open and accountable now. If you log into the mpac.ca site and use the 'aboutmyproperty' feature you can see how they arrived at your assed value. And you can also review up to 25 other properties at once and compare your assessment. And a bonus, you can see what your neighbors paid for their house when they bought it. One of my neighbours paid $95000 for his identical house and lot in 2004... man if only I was in a position to buy then, that would have been sweet.

I was on www.mpac.ca last night and it's nice to be nosy with the assessments and recent sale prices neighbours . It's worth noting that without IE 7.0 don't bother, as it won't work with Firefox, or IE 6.0.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by oldcoote

The problem is that my property is fairly assessed.

But most of my neighbours are underassessed. So for some reason I'm paying my "fair share", but everyone else is getting a break.

I was told those are not grounds for appeal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for paying my fair share, I just find this fair market value process to be completely arbitrary. It would be better if they hired a local real estate agent to provide the assessments. Instead, it's some guy in Whitby who goes by your square footage and recent improvements, as opposed to neighbourhood character. You pay more if you own an updated house in an iffy location than you do if you own an original house in a great location.

Bottom line, don't get a building permit. You'll pay through the nose for it.

My bottom line would be that I paid $27K less then the assessed value within 6 weeks of the assessment date. The house was on the market for 5 months, so the 'market' had more then enough time to put a fair value on the home and that fair value is what I paid, $170K.

I know they base the assessment value on many variables, but I can't understand how my home on the same, or slightly smaller, lot size and classified as a single family home is assessed at a greater value then neighbouring houses classed as 3 unit homes (when some are actually 4). One of the key items in establishing an assessed value are features of the home, i.e. number of bathrooms, number of kitchens, etc. I can guarantee you the number of bathrooms and kitchens in a 3 unit (or 4 unit) home out number the ones in my home............

It might be worth the $75 if for no other reason to get visibility into the process.

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

My bottom line would be that I paid $27K less then the assessed value within 6 weeks of the assessment date. The house was on the market for 5 months, so the 'market' had more then enough time to put a fair value on the home and that fair value is what I paid, $170K.

I know they base the assessment value on many variables, but I can't understand how my home on the same, or slightly smaller, lot size and classified as a single family home is assessed at a greater value then neighbouring houses classed as 3 unit homes (when some are actually 4). One of the key items in establishing an assessed value are features of the home, i.e. number of bathrooms, number of kitchens, etc. I can guarantee you the number of bathrooms and kitchens in a 3 unit (or 4 unit) home out number the ones in my home............

It might be worth the $75 if for no other reason to get visibility into the process.

You should win your case at the request for reconsideration stage. It won't get to appeal I'd bet.

[raisethehammer]

wow...mine has increased another $36,000. $147,000-$183,000!! geez.
this, after a 21% increase last time. In 2003 it was $123,000.
unreal.

[Millstone]

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

I was on www.mpac.ca last night and it's nice to be nosy with the assessments and recent sale prices neighbours . It's worth noting that without IE 7.0 don't bother, as it won't work with Firefox, or IE 6.0.

Where do I go there to get my assessment. I can't find a place to create an account, and myhamilton.ca's thing is broken.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by Millstone

Where do I go there to get my assessment. I can't find a place to create an account, and myhamilton.ca's thing is broken.

No need to create an account, you have a User ID and Password on your Assessment notice (comes in the mail this week, or soon), and here's the login page: https://portal.mpac.ca/wps/portal

You do need to have IE 7.0 for the site.

[Millstone]

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

No need to create an account, you have a User ID and Password on your Assessment notice (comes in the mail this week, or soon), and here's the login page: https://portal.mpac.ca/wps/portal

You do need to have IE 7.0 for the site.

I'll wait for it then. My assessment so far has been 10k below what I paid.

[MsMe]

Originally Posted by oldcoote

Bottom line, don't get a building permit. You'll pay through the nose for it.

Have to watch on that issue as well. If someone sees you doing things without a permit one can get the butt fried if someone reports them. Or if selling a house that had work done without a permit, lot of people will run from the house and won't purchase the house. So this can be a catch 22 situation for sure.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

I calculated it and my parent’s house jumped 63% increase. Live in West Mount area. When the Linc opened (moved during construction) the house value jumped literally 25% overnight. The rest came from steady increase in overall house value in the area.

I'm not sure that any of that can be attributed to the Linc. The west mountain has been the best performing area on the mountain. areas central and east mountain along the Linc haven't nearly seen the price increase as the westmount area.
I'm not sure why. it all seems the same to me.

[SteelTown]

All the southern area of the Mountain got a jump on property value when the Linc opened. Some areas more than others. West mount probably increased more because of Medowlands, Linc, closer to 403 and infill housing (ex West 5th, Chedoke, Upper Paradise).

I remember the days sitting at home and feeling the house rumble as construction crew blew up rocks during construction of the Linc. Resulted a few cracks on the side of houses, city paid to fix it.

[Gurnett71]

Looks like a 25% increase in assessment on my house (West Mountain)...pretty close to what I paid last year and the increase seems to be in line with what others are indicating here from different parts of the city.

[Millstone]

"Over this 3-year period, your property's value changed by: $34,000"