Josh Morgan

The appellant appealed the property tax assessments for a large retail building centre for the 2018 through 2022 taxation years.

The parties agreed on the value of the improvements but disputed the land value.

The appellant argued for a lower current value based on an alternative approach averaging their expert's cost approach and a time-adjusted appraisal report.

The Board rejected the appellant's evidence, finding the comparable sales used were too small and the appraisal report was unreliable as its author did not testify and its effective date was outside the valuation date.

The Board accepted the respondent's expert evidence of land value based on comparable sales, which supported a higher current value than the returned assessment.

As the respondent did not seek an increase, the Board confirmed the returned assessments.

The appellants appealed the property assessment of a 14-storey office building in London, Ontario for the 2017 to 2022 taxation years.

The parties agreed to use the income approach to determine the current value, agreeing on a capitalization rate of 9.5%.

The Assessment Review Board determined the gross income based on the appellants' uncontested evidence of fair market rents for comparable properties.

The Board also determined the appropriate vacancy allowance to be 30% and the expense allowance to be 22.5%.

Applying these figures, the Board reduced the assessment of the subject property from $4,993,000 to $4,732,000.