Important Changes to Review and Appeal Deadlines
On October 24, 2016, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (“MPAC”) mailed out Property Assessment Notices to multi-residential properties in the Province of Ontario. This is an Assessment Year and these Property Assessment Notices update the assessed values of every property in Ontario. They will serve as the basis for calculating property taxes for your property from 2017 to 2020.
If you disagree with your property’s assessed value or classification, you may have the option to request a review, referred to as a “Request for Reconsideration” or “RfR”, or to appeal the assessment. If a property, or a portion of it, is classified as residential, farm or managed forest, the property owner must complete the RfR process prior to becoming eligible to file an appeal. Properties falling outside these property classes, including multi-residential properties, can proceed directly to an appeal. Nonetheless, the RfR remains a useful tool that can avoid the time and expense of the appeal process.
In the past, the deadline to file an RfR or an appeal has been consistent across the province, March 31. This is no longer the case during an Assessment Year, like the 2017 tax year.
The most important change to the 2016 RfR and appeal deadlines is the deadline to file an RfR in an Assessment Year:
• When you receive a Property Assessment Notice or Property Reassessment Notice (an “Assessment Year”), the deadline to submit an RfR is 120 days from the “Issue Date” printed on the Property Assessment Notice.
• For non-Assessment Years, the deadline to submit an RfR otherwise remains March 31st of the taxation year in respect of which the request is made.
In addition, property owners should be aware of the following changes to the 2016 RfR and appeal deadlines which begin in the 2017 tax year:
• For years which are not the first year to which a general reassessment applies, if MPAC extends the time for returning the assessment roll, the last day for making an RfR is 120 days after the return of the assessment roll.
• If you make an RfR, MPAC must mail the results of its reconsideration no later than 180 days after the request is made. However, if MPAC notifies you within 180 days of the request that it requires an extension, MPAC must mail the results no later than 240 days after the request is made.
• If you have made an RfR within the applicable time period, no appeal may be brought unless either of the following circumstances exist:
1. You have received a Notice of Reconsideration from MPAC; or
2. You have not received a Notice of Reconsideration and the deadline by which it should have been mailed has passes.
• If you have made an RfR subsequent to receiving a Property Assessment Notice, the last day for you to appeal for a taxation year is as follows:
1. If MPAC has mailed a Notice of Reconsideration within the time required, 90 days after the issuance date printed on the Notice of Reconsideration.
2. If MPAC has not mailed a Notice of Reconsideration within the time required, 90 days after it should have been mailed by MPAC.
MPAC’s 2016 Property Assessment Notice Mailing Schedule indicates that notices for non-multi-residential property classes as well as mixed-used property classes were to mailed by MPAC between April and August 2016. This means that RfR and appeal deadlines for these property classes may have already lapsed. Property owners should therefore carefully review their notices as soon as they are received in order to ensure they do not miss the deadline for RfR or appeal.
