Over 100 property owners have filed appeals of their assessment notices with the City of Weyburn as of the new deadline of Monday for appeals, but only about 35 to 40 per cent of those will make it through to the appeal process when the city's Board
Over 100 property owners have filed appeals of their assessment notices with the City of Weyburn as of the new deadline of Monday for appeals, but only about 35 to 40 per cent of those will make it through to the appeal process when the city's Board of Revision sits on Aug. 12-13 to hear the appeals.
City assessor Brenna Keelor said that those filing an appeal must file evidence of where they feel the error in assessment was made by 20 days prior to the Board of Revision hearing, and when SAMA (Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency) looks the submissions over, they may be able to work with the appellants to solve the problem.
She said while firm numbers won't be known until later in the week, she estimated about 35 to 40 per cent of the appeals being filed will end going all the way to an appeal hearing.
Meantime, SAMA served notice they will be appealing the assessments made on 16 warehouse commercial properties in Weyburn.
The Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) is responsible for providing valuations to the City of Weyburn as well as another 755 municipalities in the province.
As a part of the revaluation, open houses are set up where property owners can discuss their property assessment with SAMA appraisers. At the open house held in Weyburn in May, concerns were raised regarding changes to the valuations of warehouse commercial properties in the city.
In reviewing these concerns, SAMA appraisers recognized an error had been made in their valuations. This resulted in 16 warehouse commercial properties being under-assessed. SAMA had set a cut-off date of 1980, with regards to the age of buildings and the market neighbourhoods the Agency established to group similar properties, but realized that this cut-off date should have been set at 1976 for warehouse-type properties. Warehouse properties built just prior to 1980 were being incorrectly grouped with older properties, instead of comparable properties built after 1980.
In order to correct this, the Agency is appealing all of the taxable properties affected by this error. The owners of the affected commercial properties were contacted by the City of Weyburn, as well as SAMA staff. SAMA will handle any associated appeal fees and documentation required to ensure the appeals are prepared and provided to the City and the local Board of Revision.
These changes will seek to eliminate any disparities between these similarly grouped properties, and will ultimately result in more equitable assessments for commercial property in the City.
As part of the review of these affected properties, SAMA has conducted a full physical reinspection of each affected property to ensure they are up-to-date and that there are no discrepancies in the Agency's assessment data.
SAMA officials said the City of Weyburn has been helpful in bringing this issue to a quick resolution and supporting the Agency's strategy to make the changes proactively.
One of the largest property owners in Weyburn, the Weyburn Co-operative Association, indicated they were able to come to an agreement with the city, and so will not file an appeal, even though they maintain the assessments were wrong and will cost the Co-op a significant amount of money.
Co-op general manager Don Kraft said even with their taxes being adjusted, they will see an overall tax increase of over $100,000 from last year.
In spite of the huge tax bite, Kraft said it will not affect their giving to the community.
"We're hoping to absorb the increase; I just won't have as much of a profit as a result," he said, adding this will impact the bottom line of profits for next year.
While the Co-op is in good enough shape financially to absorb such a hit, Kraft said this will make it difficult to attract new businesses to the city, or for existing businesses to expand or grow their operations.
"It makes long-term planning very difficult. We're established here, so we don't have a choice," he said.
The major change in their taxes came in the change in SAMA's policies to an income-based approach on commercial properties.
