Veronica Wellman

The City of Ottawa brought a motion for disclosure of rent rolls and income and expense statements from the property owner, and Property Income and Expense Return information from MPAC, for the purpose of determining the current value of the subject multi-residential properties.

The property owner opposed the motion, arguing the requested documents from 2018-2022 were not relevant to the 2016 valuation date and that it did not maintain property-specific income statements.

The Assessment Review Board granted the motion, finding that the requested documents were relevant to the income approach to valuation and proportionate to the issues in dispute, ordering the property owner to disclose the available 2018-2020 rent rolls and combined income-expense statements.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) brought a motion to dismiss the appellant's property assessment appeals for the 2023 and 2024 taxation years on the basis of issue estoppel.

The appellant argued that the current value of the subject property was inequitable compared to similar lands.

The Assessment Review Board found that the issue of equitable adjustment had already been finally determined in a prior appeal proceeding for the 2017-2020 taxation years.

Applying recent Divisional Court jurisprudence, the Board held that all requirements for issue estoppel were met and declined to exercise its discretion to hear the appeals.

The motion was granted and the appeals were dismissed.