Property values go up on average

News Release
MPAC

Thunder Bay, Ontario, September 21, 2005 - Property Assessment Notices have been mailed to more than 114,000 property owners in Thunder Bay, Dryden, Kenora, Fort Frances and 52 surrounding northwestern municipalities as part of the province-wide property assessment update.
In Thunder Bay, Kenora, Dryden, Fort Frances and 52 other municipalities, the assessed value of residential properties increased by an average of seven to eight per cent since June 2003, when the last valuation occurred, according to Darlene Morgan, Municipal Relations Representative in the Thunder Bay office of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Of the region’s 56 municipalities, ten experienced decreases in residential property values, averaging seven to eight per cent.
This year, most Notices for residential property owners will include the percentage by which their property’s value has changed since the last assessment update. The Notices will also show the overall percentage by which residential properties in that municipality have changed. Municipalities use property assessments as the basis for distributing taxes within a community.
“To verify the accuracy of the assessed value, property owners should ask themselves if they could have sold their property for its assessed value on January 1, 2005. If the answer is yes, then the value is accurate,” Morgan said.
If information on a property owner’s Notice appears to be incorrect or missing, the owner should first contact MPAC through the Customer Contact Centre at 1 866 296-6722 (MPAC) or web site at www.mpac.ca. If property owners do not believe their assessed value or classification is accurate, they can ask MPAC for a review by submitting a Request for Reconsideration (RfR). Owners have until December 31, 2006 to request a review. Finally, property owners can also file a Notice of Complaint to the Assessment Review Board any time before March 31, 2006, even if the owner has already requested a review by MPAC. Full information on these options is available on the MPAC web site at www.mpac.ca.
“Our goal is to make sure that assessed values are accurate. If someone has a question or a concern, we’re here to help,” Morgan said.