Collaberative Effort

[Jayz]

Speaking of MPAC, I personally think most of employees there are "easy" people. I was able to get some of tax sale property info that would normally cost you a dozen of beers for free over the phone (trade secret worth a beer?). For differences such as two fireplaces vs. one in reality, I wouldn't bother to correct it to get assessed value reduced by a couple of thousands 'cause higher MPAC value may also help get you a higher sale price when it comes to time to sell. I also heard somebody had gotten his assessed value significantly lowered by simply writing a letter to MPAC telling them he would sell his property to anyone of them at that price or lower. I am not sure if that's how it exactly happened. I am about to try my luck. The new assessed value for the property we purchased last year is $180k more than purchased price ($250k more than last MPAC value). This means a big jump on the property tax for coming years. The good thing is we were able to refinance the property based on the new MPAC value  . The next thing is I am going to sell this property to MPAC. We'll see how it happens. 

[DRD]

I have a landlocked property that I have fought mpac about, they have a system that requires a frontage measurement input to calculate price, but have no frontage so they pick the shortest one most times. fair??   And do not forget about municipal act (section 51 I think) to try for that extra year back.

Keep up the fight boys     I do and will every year.

Cheers

Doug

[ruok]

I bought a semi-remote piece of land last year that is similar to DRD. It does not have a road but there is an unopened road allowance for legal access. The former owner never questioned his assessment of $56,000 but we both new that it was extremely over inflated and I picked it up for next to nothing                                           I just received my appeal results in the mail 10 minutes ago and the assessment has been reduced to $1,200.
That being said, I now have to wait to see if the Municipality will object to MPAC's ruling on this one. Doesn't seem right but I have no choice.
Some people are fixated on assessment values but I couldn't care less. The less I have to pay the better. I use this property for two weeks of the year so I don't want to pay a lot of taxes. If I sell down the road, the new owner will be appreciate the low assessment.

[DRD]

It will creep back up I assure you!

[David1010]

Posted this yesterday, but it evaporated.

OK, so as the OP...

Does anyone know what the South River property sold for?

As a past water front property owner...

You could drive a truck through the holes in the MPAC system.  If you want some reading to raise your blood pressure, see: http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/Files/sitemedia/Documents/Investigations/SORT%20Investigations/getting_it_right_20060328.pdf. Unfortunately followup documents don't paint a promising future.

That, said it does have some use as a benchmark.  I've found it useful when trying to get a sense of the fairness of a posted asking price.  If someone is asking $199K and MPAC assessed the property at $110K, something isn't right.  The reverse also works, MPAC assessment of $120K, but an asking price of $50K, you know the place is a wreck.

As far as individual situations, I urge everyone who has a beef to challenge MPAC, but be prepared if need be to take it to ARB.  If you still have a complaint, with either MPAC or ARB go to the Ombudsman of Ontario and file a complaint.  MPAC measures its performance based on challenges.  If no one challenges them, then they say they're doing great.

[ErnestBidder]

  The MPAC system was brought into play to give a level taxation field, IIRC. If you're looking for comparables to arrive at a close-to-true value, there's nothing like the MLS "for sale" and "solds" history. Benchmarks should be set by the players, not by some boogaloo-hocus-pocus-mumbo-jumbo software.

[ruok]

EarnestBidder hit the nail on the head. A property is only worth what someone is willing to pay......not what someone, at arms length , deems the property to be valued.