Assessment Review Board

Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE: August 27, 2020

FILE NO.: RR 20-010

Assessed Person(s): Orchard Court Apts Limited

Appellant(s): Orchard Court Apts Limited

Respondent(s): Municipal Property Assessment Corporation Region 15

Respondent(s): City of Mississauga

Property Location(s): 1285 Lakeshore Road East

Municipality(ies): City of Mississauga

Roll Number(s): 2105-070-156-04600-0000

Appeal Number(s): 3303878, 3384969, 3359672 and 3384968

Taxation Year(s): 2018 and 2019

Legislative Authority: Rule 122 of the Assessment Review Board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure

Parties

Representative

Orchard Court Apts Limited

Daniel Attard

Municipal Property Assessment Corporation

Submissions not received

City of Mississauga

Submissions not received

REQUEST FOR: Reinstatement of appeals 3303878, 3384969, 3359672 and 3384968

HEARD: In writing

ADJUDICATOR(S): Jean-Paul Pilon, Member

DECISION

OVERVIEW

1Orchard Court Apts Limited (the “Requestor”) requests that the Assessment Review Board (the “Board”) reinstate appeals pursuant to Rule 122 of the Board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure (the “Rules”). This request for reinstatement was filed with the Board on December 2, 2019.

Background

2The only party to make submissions in relation to the request was the Requestor, and the only document filed in support of the request was the affidavit of Andrew Attard (the “Affiant”), affirmed on December 2, 2019. The Affiant represented the Requestor in the appeals that are the subject of this request to reinstate.

3The Affiant affirmed that the Requestor had filed an appeal for the 2017 taxation year that was assigned appeal number 3273721 by the Board. The Board then deemed appeals for the 2018 and 2019 taxation years, assigning them appeal numbers 3303878 and 3359672 respectively pursuant to section 40(26) of the Assessment Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.31 (the “Act”).

4The Affiant further affirmed that the Requestor filed its Statement of Issues in accordance with the applicable Schedule of Events on October 31, 2018, well before the deadline of February 19, 2019. Following that, the Requestor and MPAC signed minutes of settlement in July 2019 that only applied to the 2017 appeal. No other taxation years were resolved by those minutes of settlement, according to the Affiant, because the property sold in January 2018 and he did not have the authority to resolve the other appeals.

5On August 23, 2019, the Board issued notices of decision for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 taxation year appeals. The Affiant wrote that the appeals for 2018 and 2019 were included in error because the minutes of settlement did not apply to the appeals for those years.

6At some point the Board created new appeals for the 2018 and 2019 taxation years, 3384968 and 3384969, likely when the above error was discovered. However, MPAC then filed a request to dismiss those newly created appeals, stating that a Statement of Issues had been requested of the Requestor on July 17, 2019 and not filed. The Affiant indicated that this was also an error because the Requestor did not receive a request for a Statement of Issues and that it had, in fact, submitted its Statement of Issues to MPAC early.

7The Board notes that at present its records indicate that the original 2018 and 2019 appeals, 3303878 and 3359672, have been resolved by minutes of settlement and that the newly created appeals 3384968 and 3383969 have been closed.

ANALYSIS

8Rule 122 provides that an appeal can be reinstated if the appeal was “withdrawn, removed or dismissed in error” or “natural justice or procedural fairness require that the appeal be reinstated.”

9There were several clerical errors by the Board: in noting that the 2018 and 2019 appeals had been settled, in creating new appeals for the same years, and then closing them. The Board find that appeals for the 2018 and 2019 taxation years should be reinstated because procedural fairness requires it pursuant to Rule 122.

10The Requestor asked in its request that the original appeals (3303878 and 3359672) be reopened, or that the reinstated appeals (3384968 and 3384969) remain open when, in fact, these latter appeals are now closed.

11The Board prefers the former approach and directs that the disposition of the original appeals be vacated and that the appeals be reinstated. In addition, because the effect of this decision will be to reopen appeals that should not have been closed, a further deemed appeal for the 2020 taxation year is to be created pursuant to section 40(26) of the Act.

ORDER

12Appeals 3303878 and 3359672 for the 2018 and 2019 taxation years respectively are reinstated.

13A deemed appeal for the 2020 taxation year is to be created.