Ontario Appeals: COVID-19 Update (Mar 26, 2020
Contestation of Assessments – Ontario Update :
Requests for Reconsideration
As a result of the Ontario Government’s Declaration of Emergency related to COVID-19, MPAC has posted to their social media sites that the Request for Reconsideration deadline for the 2020 tax year, which was due to be March 31, 2020, is being extended. This could provide additional time for a review of your current portfolio, remembering that the valuation base date is still January 1, 2016.
As per MPAC:
The Request for Reconsideration (RfR) deadline—for property owners who disagree with the assessment of their property—is usually March 31 of the applicable tax year. The RfR deadline for the 2020 tax year will be 16 days after the Ontario Government‘s Declaration of Emergency related to the #COVID19 situation is lifted.
Assessment Appeals and Scheduling
As a result of the Ontario Government’s Declaration of Emergency, the Assessment Review Board released a memo, attached herein. There are a few salient items:
- New Appeals: The appeal deadline is supposed to have been March 31, 2020, but the ARB will continue to accept appeals until 15 days after the Declaration of Emergency is lifted.
- Current Appeals:
- Schedule of Events for current appeals will be suspended until April 30th, then will re-commence as at the timing of where they were previously.
- Any hearings before the Board are suspended until after May 19, 2020
All of these may impact your current appeals (or non-appeals) and should be considered. It continues to be our advice and our goal, where practically possibly, to proceed as if the deadlines have not been changed, as it relates to new RfR’s or Appeals – Namely March 31, 2020.
If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of the team.
Stay safe/healthy.
-Jeff