4 things to know if you are suspicious of this year's property tax bill

In New Brunswick there is a heavy onus on property owners to police the accuracy of their own property tax bills.

"When adjustments need to be made we will make them. But we can't make that assumption,"said Stephen Ward, New Brunswick's acting executive director of assessment.

"Property owners (have to) let us know."

Ward saidService New Brunswick wants to correct any lingering property tax problems, but that means property owners mustreach out during the next two weeks.

"We want to make this system better, we have to make it better. We're trying our darndest," said Ward. "We don't care if we get 500,000 phone calls."

As many learned last year, an inaccurate assessment can wrongly inflate a tax bill by hundreds of dollars.

But unless an owner knows there's a problem and takes action to officially question the bill, it's likely it won't be fixed.

This year the window for having a bad property tax bill straightened out in New Brunswick is much tighter than last year.

Property owners have untilMarch 31to challenge 2018 property assessments and tax bills if it is suspected they are too high.

So, how do you decide if your property is being taxed properly or if it is suspect and should be challenged? Try these four steps:

Ask yourself:Can I sell my house for what the tax bill says it's worth?

All property taxes share the same starting point:the estimated value the province puts on the property itself.

The accuracy of that estimate is critical.

It gets multiplied by the local tax rate in each communityto generate the tax bill.

The estimated value of each property is supposed to reflect what it would sell for on the open market and if the estimate is wrong then so is the tax bill.

Ward openly acknowledgedthat the estimates are not always accurate.

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"We do the best that we can to arrive at real and true market value on every one of those properties but it's not a science," he said.

The easiest way to decide if a tax bill is too high is to answer one question:can I sell my house for what the tax bill says it is worth?

Last year, the majority of homeowners who successfully fought their tax bills, like Saint John's Donald Mahar,instantly recognizedthe estimated value put on their property by the province was too high.

"I know it's not worth what they've got it assessed for," said Mahar at the time. "

As soon as I opened it (the bill) I couldn't believe it. I said they're crazy."

When Mahar filed an objection to the value placed on his home it was dropped $30,400, saving him nearly $550 a year on his tax bill.

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He believes if he hadn't understood what his house was really worth and acted on that knowledge, nothing would have changed.

"I'd say if I hadn't pointed it out I would have never heard a thing about it.I'd have just been paying and that's all there would have been to it."

But that raises a second issue. If you suspect, but are unsure if the value put on your house for tax purposes is too high, how do you check?

Learn to useone or both of these 2websites

Property sales generally establish the true market value of land and it is the key clue to understanding whether the province is correctly valuing real estate in your own neighbourhood.

There are two websites in New Brunswick that residents can use to get basic but important information on property assessments, taxes, and sales over the past fiveyears.

One is run by the province paol.snb.ca and the other propertize.cais the creation of Rothesay open data advocateShawn Peterson.

Ward says the more people know about what is happening in their own neighbourhood, especially about selling prices,the better they'll be able to judge if their own property assessment and tax bill is accurate.

Neighbourhoods where houses are consistently selling for less than their assessed value is a major sign that property taxes in that neighbourhood may be a problem.

The websites can also suggest whether your house is being treated differently than others on your street.

Look closely at your neighbours

On Moncton's Evergreen Drive last year Bill Thomas was using the province's online assessment website to investigate a five per centincrease in his tax bill when he discovered something else neighbours with larger homes and bigger lots than his were being valued the same for taxes.

"Each one is bigger than ours, the properties are larger and they all have garages, so based on that we appealed," said Thomas

Service New Brunswick soon confirmed Thomas' suspicion.

It not only reversed the $11,000 increase in his property assessment but then cut its estimate of the value of his home a further $46,900 in recognition that his house was overvalued in relation to his neighbours'.

The decreases cut his overall annual tax bill by more than $900 and he credits the information that's now available publicly.

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"One day we became aware of the fact you could see these assessments through Service New Brunswick online so we went online and started comparing ours to surrounding homes and it struck us that there's something wrong here."

There were thousands of erroneous assessments generated in New Brunswick last year, especially in the 12 communitiesevaluated using the province's new digital assessment system.

That includes Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview, Sackville, Rothesay, Quispamsis, Hampton, Oromocto, Woodstock and Saint Andrews.

Many mistakes in those communitieswere fixed following challenges by affected homeowners, but others that went uncontested will carry over to this year.

According to Ward it's up to property owners to take the first step but he insists Service New Brunswick will help anyone who takes the initiative to reach out either by fixing a mistake or explaining why it believes the current tax level is fair.

Call first, file a challenge later

Ward says Service New Brunswick can normally deal with problems property owners have over the phone and encourages those who are concerned about their tax bill to call in for advice before filing an official challenge.

Every tax bill has a phone number for the local assessment office on it.

"We're hoping to get the message out to people that we're there, we're willing to talk to you. We're doing our best," said Ward.

Those not satisfied by a phone conversation can file an officialrequest for review onlineor fill out and return the "request for review" form printed on their bill.