A citizen of Arrondissement de Rivières-des-Prairies―Pointe-aux-Trembles was contesting a local improvement tax bill for paving and lawnedging work done on his street, in 2006. He was also questioning the calculation method and inquired as to the portion taken on by Ville de Montréal.
After investigation and analysis of the documents, we concluded that this local improvement tax was justified. Although some work that had been done before 2006 had not been billed to the bordering owners, this exemption was due to the temporary nature of these works. The 2006 paving and lawnedging work, however, were for permanent first generation infrastructures and, therefore, the borough was justified to charge the cost to the bordering owners.
While analysing the documents, however, we noticed that a substantially large vacant lot had not been taken into account in the calculation of this tax. The reason was that this lot, which belongs to Ville de Montréal, was not listed on the Property Assessment Roll.
At our request, the Service des finances calculated the impact of this oversight on the amounts billed to the bordering owners: it turned out to be of about 20%, globally.
The Department undertook to add this City property to the Property Assessment Roll and to recalculate the amounts of the local improvement tax charged to the bordering owners, accordingly.
As a result, bordering owners received a partial refund of the amount paid in 2010 and their future yearly tax bills will also be reduced, accordingly.
