Thousands of homes involved in last year's property assessment scandal now seeing tax reductions

Thousands of New Brunswick properties hit with "fast track" assessment and tax increases by Service New Brunswick last year have been getting a heavy proportion of assessment and tax reductions this year, but the agency insists that's not a sign of widespread mistakes it made in 2017.

"I wouldn't say there are errors in that particular location (where reductions occur)," said Stephen Ward, executive director of valuation for Service New Brunswick at a press briefing on Tuesday.

"What we have looked at this year are property sales in that area that occurred late 2016 and 2017 and they have given us an indication that our assessments are too high."

Data released by Service New Brunswick this week and compiled by the website propertize.ca shows more than 27,000 properties in Moncton, Dieppe, Fredericton, Saint John, Rothesay and Sackville are getting property tax assessment reductions this year, many the agency hit with increases just last year.   

All six communities were embroiled in property tax controversy in 2017 after a new digital assessment system used on them by Service New Brunswick to value properties and calculate provincial and municipal taxes issued thousands of inflated bills to residents.

The system combines aerial photography, computer analysis and sophisticated mathematics to assess properties more rapidly than traditional methods and although it was to be tested and introduced slowly over several years it was "fast tracked" and pressed into service all at once by the province in 2017.

Second try for new system 

An investigation by New Brunswick Auditor General Kim MacPherson failed to find out who in government ordered the fast track.

This month's property tax bills include the second wave produced by the new system, which operates primarily in 13 southern New Brunswick communities.

On Rothesay's Highland  Avenue, a major problem area in 2017, 63 homeowners who got dinged with assessment and tax increases last year have received notices of reductions for 2018.  

Carl Porter lives on the street and successfully fought a $600 tax increase Service New Brunswick tried to impose on his house last March.  

It was eventually retracted, and he doubts a $14 tax reduction the agency has calculated on his house this year was caused by slumping real estate prices in his neighbourhood - since three of the last four houses sold on his street were purchased for more than their assessed value

"Places are selling pretty good in here," said Porter who credits a coming provincial election for this year's assessment reductions  

"It's political, definitely. I'm afraid it's going to be a lot different once the election gets over."

Reductions widespread 

Most assessment reductions this year - more than 11,000 - have been recorded in Moncton where 43 percent of all landowners are getting some kind of break.  That's more than three times the provincial average.

Entire neighbourhoods are involved.  

Around Moncton's Brentwood Park, across the Peticodiac from Riverview, 126 houses on eight streets that had property tax increases last year have received notice of reductions this year.

It's the same thing across the city— hundreds of homes near the Evergreen Park School and hundreds more in neighbourhoods around the Moncton Coliseum are seeing reduced taxes.

In Sackville, the percentage receiving tax reductions is even higher. Just over 1,900 properties, mostly houses, have received assessment reductions.  

That's two-thirds of all the properties in the town that were bombarded with tax increases last year.

On Sackville's Queen's Road, 71 property owners who had assessment and tax increases in 2017 got notices showing assessment and tax decreases this year.  

That includes 90-year-old Helen Wheaton who fought off a 29 per cent increase on her Queens Road home in 2017.

That was eventually reversed and this year her property tax bill has been reduced by another six per cent.

"That sounds good.  We need all the help we can get," said Wheaton on Thursday.

On Sackville's Churchill Avenue, all 26 homes this year have received assessment reductions after 21 saw increases in 2017.

Carolyn Chase who owns one of the homes on Churchill and has watched her property tax bill jump $176 and then fall back down in a 12 month period, has a hard time believing the assessment system is entirely trustworthy.

"I think it went up too high the first time and has come down pretty fast. Why that is I'm not sure."