THE WEST HARBOUR RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

REPORT ON CURRENT VALUE ASSESSMENT (CVA) – MARCH 1, 2003

Dear Members:

In January we reported to you information regarding the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s (MPAC) valuation of your property as of June 30, 2001. This new value is being used as the basis for the calculation of your municipal taxes in 2003. For many of you, both the increase in the assessment and the resulting tax has been somewhat unpleasant.

Your board met with two senior members of MPAC on February 26, who reported their findings to us regarding the West Harbour Area, following our request to them to look into some excessive increases in values versus the 1999 valuation. It is important to note, however, that real estate values in our immediate area, until recently, have lagged somewhat behind the increases that have occurred over the last eight or so years in other parts of the community, such as East Oakville. In some way, it was just a question of time before the West Harbour would be recognized as a neighbourhood of choice.

As a reminder, the CVA is arrived at through an arbitrary formula comparing your house and property (frontage, lot size, location, age, construction features, etc.) against the selling price of other local and similar properties as at June 30, 2001. In addition, because of the large number of homes in Ontario (4.5 million), there appears to be a significant amount of mass averaging within local areas, which penalizes a number of homeowners who may live in a smaller home, but which is in proximity to a large upscale home which has recently sold (on or around the June 2001 valuation date).

Before you mount a Request for Reconsideration” (RFR) and/or an Appeal you must ask yourself: “Does the assessed value reasonably represent the amount you might have expected your property to sell for at June 30, 2001? If the answer is yes, then you are not likely going to have much luck with a “Request for Reconsideration”, nor a formal appeal with the Assessment Review Board (ARB)

Following the interview with the two members of MPAC, we recommend that those of you who strongly disagree with your assessment, initiate both the RFR and the Appeal before March 31, 2003. The latter will cost $50, however if you are successful with your appeal you will have this money refunded.

Some tips for your RFR:

§ Have your information carefully prepared to make a strong case for your request;

§ It is important to note that there may be an opportunity to see a reduction because of the following “negative” influences which you feel impact the value of your property, and to make the MPAC aware of these, such as:

· School Traffic

· Pedestrian right of way to parks

· Commercial Enterprises

o Water Filtration Plant on Kerr

o The office at 84 Chisholm

o Drapery Plant at 49 Chisholm

o Boat Yard at 5 Walker and along Forsythe

o An unobstructed view of MacDonald’s (example)

o Proximity to a commercial parking lot

§ It is also important that you convey information regarding the age of your home, the number of bathrooms, unfinished basements, because the state of your home may have been compared unfavourably with a newer, or upgraded home.

§ You also have an opportunity to choose six homes that you feel are similar to your own, and request that MPAC provide you with the assessments on those, as well as six additional homes that MPAC believe are local and similar to yours.

Your choices:

§ Phone 1-866-296-6722 or Fax 1-866-297-6703 or e-mail www.mpac.ca and download the RFR and the Appeal forms – fill them out and send them in as quickly as possible. See attached samples of the two forms.

For those of you who may require some assistance with the process, members of our board would be pleased to help. Please contact Jim Brophy at 905-337-3483 or e-mail mbrophy25@cogeco.ca

We sincerely hope the above information is of value.

Reminder of deadlines:

In order to maximize the potential for a reduction please file your Request for Reconsideration and the Appeal by March 31, 2003

Your WEST HARBOUR RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE