Phone lines jammed at city tax office

Thousands of Toronto homeowners upset by assessment hikes

Brian McAndrew

STAFF REPORTER

There is a calm about Ken Fagan, while all around the city thousands of people are opening their mail and crying foul.

As the chief tax assessor in Toronto, Fagan has seen his office take more than 3,000 phone calls since Tuesday and received more than 1,200 e-mails – nearly all from homeowners after they got notice of the startling jump in the assessed values of their properties.

“We let people vent and once they settle down, we’re usually able to work it out,” Fagan said yesterday.

“We’re expecting between 1,000 and 1,500 calls each day for the next few days.”

More than 510,000 residential property owners in homes and condos have received the news of mostly surging tax assessments in letters sent from the Ontario Property Assessment Corp. Some are boiling mad.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Property owners wanting an assessment review can reach the corporation at 1-866-296-6722, by fax at (416) 250-2141 or e-mail at ao09@opac.on.ca.

Only a handful have turned up at the corporation’s Toronto office at 5255 Yonge St. But once more homeowners examine the assessment notice over the weekend, Fagan anticipates the walk-in traffic at Yonge St. will rise next week to about 200 each day.

The problem is that a strong economy and hot real estate market have combined to push Toronto property values up by an average of 21 per cent since the last assessment notices went out three years ago. Using factors like location, size, amenities and records of real estate transactions from 1998 and 1999, a computer program comes up with the assessment. But it’s not always accurate and, at your request, the assessment corporation will send an inspector out to reassess any piece of property.

Here’s the procedure. First, find out what similar homes in your neighbourhood have sold for recently. Fagan recommends doing some window shopping at real estate offices where homes on the market are pictured and often include the asking price. You can get the assessment corporation to do some comparisons on your behalf. Select six addresses – homes similar to your own in your neighbourhood and possibly one better than yours and another that’s more modest – and the corporation will provide you with their assessed value for free. Each additional property request costs $10. (These are all public documents. Your neighbour can’t keep it secret.)

The comparison will also include when each house was last sold and for what price, the size of the property and other details like age, square footage, type of heating, air conditioning, finished basement, garage and fireplace.

If you still don’t like the results after seeing the comparisons, you can ask for a “request for reconsideration.” An assessor will visit your home and review the value. The work starts Saturday – by appointment and including evenings – and continues for three weeks.

Starting the appeal process could turn into a hassle, simply because it’s not easy to get through to the 55 assessment workers handling the Toronto office’s telephone lines.

Fagan has left his office at the district headquarters on Eglinton Ave. E. to test the numbers, and he found it tough to get through.

“Our lines are quite busy and that’s a good thing,” says the 30-year property assessment veteran.

“We want people to get in touch if they feel they have a problem.”

It seems many do feel that way. Homeowners are hitting the roof, especially in the high-ceilinged manors of Rosedale and Forest Hill as well as Kingsway, Leaside, Seaton Village and Cabbagetown, where the increases are higher than the average. The assessment is the base used by the city council to establish the tax rate. Taxes will increase if the city were to keep the residential tax rate the same at the current 1.213702 per cent of assessed value. Fagan has no idea what will happen. His work is assessing value, not collecting taxes.

Property owners can also make an appeal to the Assessment Review Board, a provincial tribunal that hears assessment appeals. It costs $50 to appeal.

Fagan says the tribunal upholds a majority of the assessed values. Deadline for appeal applications is March 31, 2001.

Corporation officials will hold public information meetings around the city during the next few weeks at Toronto City Hall and old city halls of former municipalities beginning at 7 p.m. at:

• Etobicoke Civic Centre – Nov. 28 and 29. 399 The West Mall.
• North York Civic Centre – Nov. 29 and 30. 5100 Yonge St.
• York Civic Centre – Dec. 4 and 6. 2700 Eglinton Ave. W.
• Scarborough Civic Centre – Dec. 6 and 7. 150 Borough Dr.
• East York Civic Centre – Dec. 13 and 14. 850 Coxwell Ave.
• Toronto City Hall – Dec. 11 and 18. 100 Queen St. W.