2 total
New hearing ordered in property assessment appeal after post-hearing $518M sale contradicted nominal valuation.
The City of Hamilton requested a review of an Assessment Review Board decision that valued a 411.6-acre portion of a steel production property at a nominal $100 per acre due to alleged environmental contamination.
Shortly after the original hearing, the entire property sold for $518 million.
The Board found that MPAC had jurisdiction to issue the corrected 2018 assessment and that the original panel did not err in admitting hearsay evidence regarding contamination risks.
However, the Board concluded that the post-hearing sale constituted new evidence that could not have been reasonably obtained earlier and could have affected the original panel's conclusion that the lands were unmarketable.
Consequently, the Board ordered a new hearing of the entire appeal before a different panel.
Board rules on cross-motions for disclosure in casino property assessment appeal, applying relevance and proportionality.
In an appeal concerning the property assessment of a casino in Gananoque, both the property owner and the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) brought motions for disclosure of documents.
The Assessment Review Board applied the test of relevance and proportionality to each request.
The Board granted several of MPAC's requests for financial and operational documents relevant to its discounted cash flow valuation, subject to confidentiality agreements to protect the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's commercially sensitive information.
The Board denied several of the owner's requests for being overly broad, disproportionate, or lacking established relevance to the issues pleaded.
