Property assessment notices on their way for 12,800 people in Windsor

Property assessment notices are on their way for just under 13,000 people in Windsor, Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) vice president and COO Carmelo Lipsi said.

According to Lipsi, notices are being sent to 12,800 of the approximately 86,000 properties in Windsor, but property owners will not necessarily see an increase in their taxes.

"An increase in your assessment value does not automatically translate into an increase in taxation, and although that assessment value of properties on the residential side would be increasing based on what we're seeing today, if they all increase at the same amount there would be no increase in taxation as a result of the assessment update," Lipsi told CBC Windsor.

"We provide the assessment value to the municipality, in this case the City of Windsor, and then they will determine the appropriate tax rate taking into consideration the increases that have occurred."

Lipsi said about 11,200 of the notices being sent out are for residential properties, while the remainder will be for other types, such as commercial or industrial.

"Typically, as a result of any construction activity, the value would be going up but the large percentage of these notices are actually attributed to ownership change," he said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ontario government postponed MPAC's province-wide assessment update in 2019. 

Lipsi said property assessment notices going out this year will reflect a Jan. 1, 2016 valuation date, and these assessments will be used by municipalities for the 2022 and 2023 tax years.

Mike Coffin, a realtor in Windsor, believes people living in "new build areas" are more likely to receive a notice.

As well, he said almost every area in Windsor has been affected by "some dramatic increases."

"If we're just referencing what their assessed values were prior to being sold, several neighbourhoods will be two to three times their assessed value," Coffin told CBC News.

"Waterfront property, of course, is always an increase and we have some development along a golf course in South Windsor along Roseland, where homes were actually torn down and new homes built. So, I think those will be some significant changes."

MPAC said property assessments are the foundation on which municipalities base the property taxes that pay for services people use every day.

Property taxes are calculated using the assessed value of a property and multiplying it by the combined municipal and education tax rates for the property class.

Lipsi said the assessed value ensures a level playing field, with all municipalities working from the same baseline.

"This is different from market value — the selling price for a property today, which is impacted by ongoing marketplace fluctuations," he explained.

"Assessed value, determined on a fixed date, provides a stable input specifically for municipal budget decisions."