Assessments system needs change

When Jeremy Dias opened his most recent assessment notice, he was stunned to learn that the City of Winnipeg had hiked his house’s value in its latest assessment by nearly $200,000. (City’s ‘outrageous’ proposed property value assessments strike fear in the hearts of homeowners, Free Press, Feb. 3)

Dias is not alone; many Winnipeggers are facing similarly dramatic increases that leave them questioning both the assessed values and the system behind them.

It’s commendable that Dias was successful in appealing some earlier years’ assessments, especially because the city’s appeal process seems designed to discourage homeowners from even trying.

The appeal process is exhausting by design.

To see it through, homeowners need to be prepared to dedicate numerous hours to their case. If the assessor disagrees with the homeowner’s proposed value, the appeal moves to the Board of Revision.

There, homeowners must navigate a quasi-judicial process that requires them to present evidence and give oral testimony at a hearing in front of the board (made up of three individuals appointed by city council).

After giving their evidence, homeowners are subjected to a sort of cross-examination by the assessor. Hearings can last for hours and are inherently intimidating. Even after all of that, homeowners who successfully convince the Board of their case do not have assurance that decision will be final.

City assessors can and do appeal Board of Revision decisions to another body, the Manitoba Municipal Board.

More bad news for Dias — in addition to the likelihood that he is over-assessed and overtaxed, he also will not be able to appeal the 2025 assessment he mentions.

Unfortunately the deadline to dispute a 2025 assessment was back on June 30, 2024. Municipalities and the City of Winnipeg are empowered under provincial legislation to set appeal deadlines.

There is no alternative recourse available to homeowners once that deadline passes, no matter how inaccurate or unreasonable the assessed value is. The city sends out the final assessments so late that homeowners have a window of about three and a half weeks to appeal their assessments.

The assessment system itself is inherently flawed, too. Residential house assessments are prepared using computer-assisted mass appraisal tools.

These statistical tools attempt to estimate market value using the sales of similar homes within a set area over a set period of time. While in theory this is a reasonable starting point, in practice these mass appraisals often produce oversimplified results that do not align with the true market value of a property.

Homeowners are left to accept these figures unless they are willing and able to fight them.

Homeowners are left turning to real estate agents and informal neighbourhood groups just to understand whether their assessment is reasonable.

This alone speaks volumes about the shortcomings of the city’s assessment system.

When ordinary taxpayers feel they must rely on friends, neighbours or industry contacts to simply interpret the value the city has assigned to their home, something is fundamentally wrong. The burden is heavier for seniors who have lived in their homes for decades, for newcomers who are unfamiliar with the tax system, and for anyone who lacks the time, confidence or financial means to navigate a quasi-judicial process.

The city provides very little practical guidance on how to assess the accuracy of an assessment, what evidence is needed, or how to effectively challenge their assessment.

Instead, homeowners are left to piece together their own research and educate themselves overnight on appraisal principles, all while facing appeal deadlines that give them barely enough time to react. A system that requires taxpayers to become part-time assessors just to protect themselves cannot reasonably be called accessible or fair.

This appeal system, designed to correct unfair property assessments, is itself challenging and unfair to homeowners.

They deserve a system that respects their time and treats them as taxpayers, not adversaries. Eliminating the (less than) 30-day appeal window and removing non-refundable appeal fees could be some first steps in the right direction.

Until these drawbacks are addressed in a meaningful way, homeowners like Dias who seek to appeal their assessed property values will continue to face an uphill obstacle course in their dealings with the city.

Carson Horsburgh is an accredited real estate appraiser and advocate who specializes in disputing commercial property assessments.