Soaring assessments upset property owners
Number of appeals rises dramatically in 2017 despite suspicion that you can’t beat city hall
More Saskatoon property owners appealed the City of Saskatoon’s 2017 assessed value of their properties than in either of the last two reassessment years.
A Riversdale business owner upset with the reassessed value of his used car lot on 20th Street said he suspects many others, like him, avoid spending money on an appeal because they see no chance of success.
Nearly 600 property owners appealed their 2017 reassessed property values, which the city uses to determine property tax rates. That’s a substantial increase from the 434 appeals filed after the last reassessment cycle in 2013, and the 420 appeals filed after the 2009 reassessment.
Commercial property appeals increased to 297 this year from 268 in 2013 and 233 in 2009. The results of this year’s appeals won’t be known until October.
“It’s relatively consistent with what we’ve seen with commercial properties,” city assessor Darcy Huisman said. “Many people file appeals just to protect their interests and then withdraw them down the road once they get more information.”
Of the 434 appeals filed in 2013, 104 were withdrawn and 178 resulted in the assessment being adjusted, a success rate of about 41 per cent.
Huisman said the city advises property owners to appeal because they can always withdraw the appeal before it goes ahead without having to pay the cost. It costs $30 for an appeal of a single residential property, while the cost of appealing commercial properties and multi-residential buildings ranges from $150-$750, depending on the assessed value.
Saskatoon has 94,000 taxable properties.
Morey Koplovich, owner of Amber Motors on 20th Street, figures the number of appeals would be higher if the chances of success were greater. The reassessed value of Koplovich’s two lots on 20th Street is 240 per cent higher than in 2013 — $556,200, up from $168,400.
That will result in his property taxes more than doubling from $3,195.98 to $7,574.60, although the $4,378.62 increase will be phased in over four years.
“A lot of people I’ve spoken to are like me. Why would you spend $300 to hear them say you can’t appeal your assessment?” Koplovich said in an interview. “It’s pretty frustrating all right, to put it mildly. It’s ridiculous.”
As much as the reassessed value and property tax hike irks Koplovich, he’s even more upset that the city’s property classification means he’ll pay higher property taxes than a much larger car lot nearby on 20th Street.
The O’Brian’s Automotive property on 20th Street is more than twice the size of the Amber Motors site on the same street, but is assessed at a lower value — $363,500 — in part because there is a permanent structure on the O’Brian’s lot. The structure means the two lots are classified differently, and because similar land parcels to Koplovich’s have sold in the area, they were used to reassess his property at a higher value. The reassessed O’Brian’s property value dropped slightly from the 2013 reassessment.
Koplovich thinks the city should eliminate property classes and assess solely on each property’s value.
For the last three reassessment cycles, the city has assessed property values using sales of comparable properties in the area. Prior to that, in 2005, assessment was determined using a prescribed method from a manual, Huisman said.