In 2016, every property owner in Ontario will receive or has received a property assessment notice from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation ("MPAC") updating the value of his/her property based on a valuation date of January 1, 2016. This general reassessment will cover the taxation years from 2017 to 2020.

Condominium corporations should review their assessment notices and confirm that any superintendent's units and common amenity service units have been assessed at a nominal value so that effectively no property tax is payable for the 2017-2020 cycle. Common amenity service units include guest units, superintendent's units, parking, lockers, gatehouses, recreational, and other units owned by the condominium corporation that are used to provide amenities or services to unit owners.

This special tax treatment emerged from a 2013 decision of the Assessment Review Board (the "Board") in TSCC No. 1498 et. al. v. MPAC and the City of Toronto. Here, the Board determined that a superintendent's unit in a condominium corporation should be assessed for tax purposes at a nominal rate of nine (9) dollars and that this nominal value applied equally to any other common amenity service unit.

If it appears that these units have been wrongly assessed, condominium corporations must file a Request for Reconsideration with MPAC within the prescribed deadline. 

The deadline for filing a Request for Reconsideration with MPAC for 2017 is 120 days after the issuance date printed on the notice of assessment. For 2018-2020, Requests for Reconsideration must be filed no later than March 31st of the taxation year in which the request is made.

In addition unit owners who have received assessments which they wish to challenge, may have the corporation appeal the assessments, on behalf of all the unit owners, if the corporation has a by-law in place authorizing it to do so.  Please contact a member of Miller Thomson's Condominium Group for assistance on this question.

The 2017 Request for Reconsideration form and all supporting documents may be submitted to MPAC by fax to 1.866.297.6703, by e-mail through the "Contact Us" page on MPAC's website, or by mail to MPAC, PO Box 9808, Toronto, ON, M1S 5T9. Additional information on MPAC's procedure for the Request for Reconsideration process can also be found here.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.