Municipal Property Assessment Corporation v. Terry Rafih, 2019 CanLII 16520

Assessment Review Board

Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE: February 28, 2019

FILE NO.: DM 158592

Moving Party(ies): Municipal Property Assessment Corporation ("MPAC") Region 27

Respondent(s): Terry Rafih

Respondent(s): City of Windsor

Property Location(s): 675 Tecumseh Road West

Municipality(ies): City of Windsor

Roll Number(s): 3739-080-010-11005-0000

Appeal Number(s): 3273684 and 3313772

Taxation Year(s): 2017 and 2018

Hearing Event No.: 709870

Legislative Authority: Rule 24(e) of the Assessment Review Board Rules of Practice and Procedure

Heard: February 7, 2019 by written submission

APPEARANCES:

Parties

Representative

MPAC

William Somerville

Terry Rafih

No one appeared

City of Windsor

No one appeared

DISPOSITION OF THE BOARD DELIVERED BY SUBUOLA AWOLERI AND SCOTT McANSH

INTRODUCTION

1MPAC seeks an order dismissing the appeals of the assessment of the property at 675 Tecumseh Road West filed by the owner, Terry Rafih, for the 2017 and 2018 taxation years. It argues that the appeals should be dismissed because he failed to provide his Statement of Issues on the date specified by the Assessment Review Board (the "Board"), in accordance to the Board's Rules of Practice and Procedure (the "Rules").

2Mr. Rafih was served with this motion for dismissal but he did not provide any responding materials. The City of Windsor also failed to file any submissions on this motion.

DISPOSITION OF MOTION

3The Board grants MPAC's motion to dismiss the appeals.

4Mr. Rafih is in breach of the Board's Rules and MPAC is prejudiced by this breach. Accordingly, the Board dismisses Mr. Rafih's appeals for the 2017 and 2018 taxation years.

REASONS FOR DISPOSITION OF MOTION

5Pursuant to Rule 33 of the Board's Rules, the Board assigned a commencement date of April 16, 2018 for Mr. Rafih's appeals. He was to provide his Statement of Issues to MPAC and the City of Windsor by September 10, 2018, as set out in the schedule of events applicable to these appeals.

6MPAC did not receive a Statement of Issues from Mr. Rafih and sent a letter to him, by email, on December 11, 2018. In this letter, MPAC stated that Mr. Rafih is in breach of the Board's Rules and if he did not withdraw the appeals within seven days, MPAC will proceed to have the appeals dismissed. He did not respond to MPAC's correspondence. MPAC then filed this motion seeking dismissal of the appeals.

7We find that Mr. Rafih is in breach of the Rules is a way that is completely attributable to him. In Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, Region 19 v. Wentworth Property Management Inc., 2018 CanLII 89428 (ON ARB), at paragraph 11, the Board determined that failure to provide a Statement of Issues, a breach completely attributable to the appellant and not cured by it, was not enough ground for dismissing the company's appeal. As the Board held in Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, Region 14 v Upper Keele Inc., 2018 CanLII 126632 (ON ARB), 2018 CanLII 248 (ON ARB), at paragraph 11, there must be evidence of prejudice to the requesting party to justify a dismissal order. Specifically the Board held that "dismissal is an extreme remedy and requires clear evidence before it will be granted."

Prejudice to MPAC

8MPAC argues that Mr. Rafif's breach is prejudicial to MPAC and that it will continue to suffer prejudice if the Board allows his appeals to proceed. In line with this, MPAC states that it has committed significant resources to its case management by increased staffing and increased information technology resources. This was done in order to comply with the Board's goal of completing appeals within its assessment cycle, pursuant to the Board's Rules. MPAC emphasizes that its management and staff has developed a plan allocating its resources to comply with the Board's Rules and it has to carefully manage its resources to meet these deadlines. In order to carry this out, MPAC states that this pushes its resources to capacity.

9According to MPAC, if appellants do not comply with the Board's Rules, as in this appeal, MPAC is unable to file a statement of response to comply with the Rules and this puts MPAC's ability to manage its own resources at risk. Consequently, non-compliance with the Board's Rules creates more workload on MPAC and puts a strain on its resources as it has had to incur additional expenses in providing initial disclosure materials, correspondence to Mr. Rafih, and the cost of this motion.

10We agree with MPAC that Mr. Rafih's breach of the Board's Rules has caused prejudice to MPAC. His failure to provide his Statement of Issues makes it more difficult for MPAC to meet its appeal management obligations. This uncertainty puts a strain on MPAC's resources. MPAC also had to incur additional expenses in providing initial disclosure materials, correspondence to Mr. Rafih, and the cost of this motion. His breach of the Board's Rules, which was not cured, is prejudicial to MPAC.

CONCLUSION

11We find that MPAC is prejudiced by Mr. Rafih's non-compliance with the Boards Rules, a breach that is entirely attributable to him. We therefore grant MPAC's motion dismissing his appeals for the 2017 and 2018 taxation years.