Assessment Review Board

Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE: July 03, 2018

FILE NO.: DM 2018M11

Moving Party: Fortress Carlyle Peter St Inc.

Respondent: Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (“MPAC”) Region 09

Respondent: City of Toronto

Property Locations: 357 Richmond Street West, 128 Peter Street, 126 Peter Street, and 122-124 Peter Street

Municipality: City of Toronto

Roll Numbers: 1904-062-460-00870-0000, 1904-062-460-00900-0000, 1904-062-460-01000-0000, and 1904-062-460-01101-0000

Taxation Year: 2017

Hearing Event No.: 698270

Legislative Authority: Section 40(5) of the Assessment Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.31, as amended

Heard: In writing

APPEARANCES:

Parties	Representative
Fortress Carlyle Peter St Inc.	Robert Allen
MPAC	No one appeared
City of Toronto	No one appeared

DISPOSITION OF THE BOARD DELIVERED BY SCOTT McANSH

1Fortress Carlyle Peter St Inc. (the “Company”) seeks an order permitting them to file an appeal of the 2017 assessment of four properties it owns in the City of Toronto. The Company filed timely requests for reconsideration with MPAC, but did not receive a timely response. When they finally did receive a response, it indicated that they were out of time to appeal to the Assessment Review Board (the “Board”). The Company filed this application a week later.

2For the reasons that follow I find that the Company’s appeal was brought to this Board within the timelines set in the Assessment Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.A.31 (the “Act”). The Board will therefore process the 2017 assessment appeals of these properties, as well as creating deemed 2018 appeals.

Timelines for Appeals

3The Act sets out a series of different timelines for appeals to this Board, depending on the taxation year at issue and if a party has filed a request for reconsideration with MPAC. That scheme has the effect of creating individual filling deadlines for each taxpayer. That has, understandably, created some confusion on the appropriate filing deadline in each particular case.

4The Company’s filing deadline for the 2017 taxation year is set out in subsection 40(5) of the Act. That subsection contains two filing deadlines. People can appeal “90 days after the issuance date printed on the notice mailed by the assessment corporation” if MPAC has mailed a timely notice. Alternatively, if MPAC has not mailed a notice of its request for reconsideration decision in a timely way, appeals can be brought “90 days after the notice should have been mailed by the corporation.”

5The Company filed its 2017 requests for reconsideration with MPAC on February 14, 2017. Subsection 39.1(7) of the Act requires MPAC to mail “the results of its reconsideration no later than 180 days after the request is made.” In this case that meant that MPAC was required to mail its results no later than August 13, 2017.

6The Company communicated with MPAC through the summer of 2017 about the issues it had with the assessed values of these properties. It was not until October 31, 2017 that the Company was advised that MPAC had responded to the 2017 requests for reconsideration. On that date, MPAC sent the Company an email attaching decision letters dated July 4, 2017. Those letters stated that the Company’s appeal deadline to this Board was October 2, 2017, nearly a month before the Company received the letters. The Company brought this application on November 7, 2017, a week after it received the MPAC decision letters.

7The Company’s evidence is that it did not receive the letters from MPAC until October 31, 2017. MPAC did not file any evidence in this motion. I therefore accept that MAPC did not mail the results before its August 13, 2017 deadline. That failure to mail triggers the appeal period in the second clause of subsection 40(5): “90 days after the notice should have been mailed by the corporation.” I calculate 90 days after August 13, 2017 to be November 11, 2017.

8The Company brought this application on November 7, 2017, a few days before its filing deadline under clause 2 of subsection 40(5). This application is an attempt to file an appeal and I accept it as a timely appeal of the 2017 assessment of the four properties before me. The Board will therefore process those 2017 appeals.

Deemed 2018 Appeals

9In addition, the Act creates 2018 appeals for each property in clause 40(26)(b) because the 2017 appeals are subject to the same January 1, 2016 valuation day and were “not finally disposed of before March 31 of the subsequent taxation year.” That condition is met here.

Conclusion

102017 and 2018 appeals will be created for the properties at 357 Richmond Street West, 128 Peter Street, 126 Peter Street, and 122-124 Peter Street in the City of Toronto because the 2017 appeals were filed in time and a 2018 appeal is created because those appeals were not disposed of before March 31, 2018.