By Yvette d'Entremont - The Weekly News
When Lower Sackville homeowner Jon Cyr opened his most recent property assessment, he was stunned to read that it had jumped more than $56,000 over last year.
"I don't know how to fight it. All I know is that it's not going to help my family," Cyr said. "Like lots of other people, we're already struggling with the economy."
Cyr's three bedroom bungalow on Nappan Drive hasn't undergone any major renovations in the two years he has lived there, although he did remove a railing off his deck and added a step.
"When I got the assessment, I looked into it further, and sent in an appeal notice saying I didn't understand why it went up so much," he said. "They sent an update but said they were only correcting it by $5,000. That's nothing when it goes up $56,000 in market assessment over the last few years."
In 2005, his property was assessed at $96,400. That figure now sits at $186,600.
Lower Sackville Coun. Bob Harvey said Cyr is one of a handful of residents who have contacted him from a section of his district that includes Nictaux Drive, Nappan Drive and Neily Drive. Harvey said assessment officers showed up in parts of his district last summer to inspect and update their records, but nobody thought much of it.
But when assessment notices arrived this winter, Harvey said some residents had jumps of between $30,000 and $50,000. That represented 30 to 40 per cent of the previous assessed value of their homes.
"I don't think the assessed value is far off the mark, but my issue is the taxable assessment should be protected by the (provincial) cap (assessment)," Harvey said. "It means when people's tax bills come in they could jump $300 or as much as $500 on one bill. I feel it's a loop hole in the provincial assessment cap."
One woman who'd been living in her home for more than 25 years told Harvey she'd had a paved driveway and a deck on her property for about 20 years, but the changes were only picked up during inspection visits last summer.
"If the cap is there to protect you from sudden jumps in your tax bill, it's not doing that for these people," Harvey said.
"I'm not questioning the market assessment, I'm just saying the taxable assessment should be kept low for existing owners. Otherwise, why have an assessment cap?"
Although he can't speak about any particular case, HRM fiscal and tax policy manager Bruce Fisher said provincial officials can visit specific neighbourhoods and look at the properties in order to compare what's onsite with their existing records.
"What they've found in some cases is the records are incorrect. They could see a home and (their) records say it has a garage, for example, but there is no garage at that property," Fisher said.
"They'd say it's obviously different from what we thought, they'd correct the error and correct the market value.The cap doesn't apply to correction of errors."
Fisher said whether or not the municipality agrees with the provincial assessment cap, it has to be dealt with equally across the board. That means new homes, homes that have undergone major renovations, and homes where "changes due to errors" have taken place are all subject to the same rules.
Although Harvey hasn't heard about similar problems in other parts of HRM, Fisher believes it's likely only a matter of time.
"If it hasn't happened in other communities, you should expect to see it in other communities," Fisher said.
ydentremont@hfxnews.ca
