Are you an owner or tenant of a commercial, industrial or institutional building and feel that the assessment of your property is too high? April 30, 2023 is the deadline to challenge this assessment.
Property values in Quebec have increased dramatically over the past three years.
Last September, the City of Montreal, as well as other municipalities in the greater Montreal area and elsewhere in Quebec (Lévis, Saint-Jérôme, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Châteauguay, Dorval, etc.) filed their new property assessment rolls for the years 2023 to 2025.
These property assessment rolls came into effect on January 1, 2023 and constitute the basis for calculating your property taxes.
In the last few weeks, you should have received an assessment notice for the property you own. Does the value seem too high? If so, it may be necessary to contest it.
How do you decide if you are justified to contest?
1) Main elements to consider and impact on your property taxes
There are several reasons why your assessed value may be too high.
The use of the mass appraisal method allows municipal assessors to determine values for a large number of properties in a short period of time, but often does not take into account the particular context of your property. Your property may need maintenance, repairs, be damaged, or simply have aged and require some care. The particular characteristics of your building, its location, its layout, etc. can also influence its value.
It is therefore important to consider whether the assessment of your property reflects its particular features.
If the value of your property is overvalued, you are paying too much in property taxes.
In addition, many municipalities use staggered or phased-in assessments, which have the effect of spreading your tax burden over several years and therefore impacting the amount of your property taxes in future years.
Contesting the value of your property for the current roll may have a favourable impact on your tax bills for the years 2023 to 2025, but also on the property value and tax bills of subsequent years when the value of your property for the next rolls is indexed based on the revised value of the current roll.
2) Challenging the Assessment
The law allows both owners and tenants to challenge the assessment of the property they own or occupy.
If you are a tenant, the assessment notice may not be sent directly to you. Make sure to check the property assessment with your landlord or the municipality.
Your property’s assessment may be challenged at each new triennial roll by filing a request for an administrative review with the municipal body responsible with the assessment (“MBRA”)[1], along with any legal and valuation arguments that may be relevant.
For the 2023-2025 triennial roll, the deadline for challenging the value of your property is April 30, 2023[2]. After this date, you will no longer be able to contest (with some exceptions), and the value of your property will be fixed for the duration of the roll.
If you are not satisfied with the MBRA’s response to your dispute, you may then file a claim with the Tribunal administratif du Québec to contest this response[3].
The main municipalities concerned are the following:
- Beaconsfield
- Beauharnois
- Baie-d’Urfé
- Châteauguay
- Dorval
- Montréal
- Montréal-Est
- Lachine
- Larouche
- Lévis
- Pierrefonds
- Rimouski
- Saint-Laurent
- Sainte-Catherine
- Sorel-Tracy
- Sallabery-de-Valleyfield
If you consider that the value of your property is too high for the 2023-2025 triennial roll and wish to contest this assessment, we invite you to contact our our team.
[1] Act Respecting Municipal Taxation, CQLR, c. F-2.1, art. 124.
[2] Idem., art. 130.
[3] Idem., art. 138.5.
