Originally Posted by markbarbera (Post 3830169)

Fairhamilton, some things to consider to determine if you may have grounds for appeal:

Firstly, go online and see the assassment for houses in your neighbourhood. Assessments are based on the average value of the property in your neighbourhood, not on purchase price. If your home is assessed at a value greater than the area average, you mat have grounds for appeal.

Secondly, compare your property's qualities to those of your neighbouring property. If your assessment is higher than your neighbours, it may be due to a larger lot, larger home, or higher quality home (i.e. all brick 2-storey vs. bungalow with aluminum siding). However, if your home or property is smaller than neighbouring homes but you have the same assessment value, you may want to appeal.

It is not unusual for a house to be assessed at a greater value than its purchase price. Remember, when market value assessment was introduced in Hamilton, the real estate in the lower city was seriously undervalued. As the resale averages rise so will the assessments. In areas where prices of late have increased dramatically, the assessment would leap as well. Believe me I know, my own assessment arrived and it has increased over 2005 by 25%.

You may want to invite a realtor over to do a walk-through and give you an estimate on the price of your home. You may have been in the right place at the right time when you bought. Perhaps you did get a great deal for that area.

If you have gone over these considerations and feel you have been wrongly assessed, start of by putting in a request for reconsideration. I would go that route before an appeal seeing that a reconsideration request isn't going to cost you anything. An appeal will cost you $75, and you can always do an appeal if the reconsideration request is denied.

Good luck with it...

Originally Posted by oldcoote (Post 3830947)

ummm, no its not.

I might be the only person whose assessment is bang on market value.

And mine went up 47% during the last assessment. I appealed and lost. :hell:

And yes, I am still pissed about it.

Originally Posted by FairHamilton (Post 3831023)

Why do you think you lost? I mean apart from the appeal process most likely being stacked against individuals.

Did they give you a reason as to why they felt your property was assessed appropriately?

Originally Posted by BrianE (Post 3831202)

It's also very open and accountable now. If you log into the mpac.ca site and use the 'aboutmyproperty' feature you can see how they arrived at your assed value. And you can also review up to 25 other properties at once and compare your assessment. And a bonus, you can see what your neighbors paid for their house when they bought it. One of my neighbours paid $95000 for his identical house and lot in 2004... man if only I was in a position to buy then, that would have been sweet.

Originally Posted by oldcoote (Post 3831152)

The problem is that my property is fairly assessed.

But most of my neighbours are underassessed. So for some reason I'm paying my "fair share", but everyone else is getting a break.

I was told those are not grounds for appeal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for paying my fair share, I just find this fair market value process to be completely arbitrary. It would be better if they hired a local real estate agent to provide the assessments. Instead, it's some guy in Whitby who goes by your square footage and recent improvements, as opposed to neighbourhood character. You pay more if you own an updated house in an iffy location than you do if you own an original house in a great location.

Bottom line, don't get a building permit. You'll pay through the nose for it. :haha:

Originally Posted by FairHamilton (Post 3831256)

My bottom line would be that I paid $27K less then the assessed value within 6 weeks of the assessment date. The house was on the market for 5 months, so the 'market' had more then enough time to put a fair value on the home and that fair value is what I paid, $170K.

I know they base the assessment value on many variables, but I can't understand how my home on the same, or slightly smaller, lot size and classified as a single family home is assessed at a greater value then neighbouring houses classed as 3 unit homes (when some are actually 4). One of the key items in establishing an assessed value are features of the home, i.e. number of bathrooms, number of kitchens, etc. I can guarantee you the number of bathrooms and kitchens in a 3 unit (or 4 unit) home out number the ones in my home............

It might be worth the $75 if for no other reason to get visibility into the process.

Originally Posted by FairHamilton (Post 3831234)

I was on www.mpac.ca last night and it's nice to be nosy with the assessments and recent sale prices neighbours ;). It's worth noting that without IE 7.0 don't bother, as it won't work with Firefox, or IE 6.0.

Originally Posted by Millstone (Post 3831882)

Where do I go there to get my assessment. I can't find a place to create an account, and myhamilton.ca's thing is broken.

Originally Posted by FairHamilton (Post 3832070)

No need to create an account, you have a User ID and Password on your Assessment notice (comes in the mail this week, or soon), and here's the login page: https://portal.mpac.ca/wps/portal

You do need to have IE 7.0 for the site.

Originally Posted by oldcoote (Post 3831152)

Bottom line, don't get a building permit. You'll pay through the nose for it. :haha:

Originally Posted by SteelTown (Post 3831170)

I calculated it and my parent’s house jumped 63% increase. Live in West Mount area. When the Linc opened (moved during construction) the house value jumped literally 25% overnight. The rest came from steady increase in overall house value in the area.