Municipalities have a duty of care to ratepayers, but only to ensure their property taxes are calculated accurately, a British Columbia tribunal has ruled.
The decision was made in Duncan, B.C., where property value assessments have seen an average increase of 34 percent. The city responded by increasing taxes by 14 percent over a two-year period, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“I accept the City owes a duty of care to its taxpayers to accurately calculate property taxes,” wrote Alison Wake, adjudicator with the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal, the province’s small claims court.
She added that municipalities could not be legally challenged for implementing general tax increases.
In 2022, Duncan ratepayer George Spong filed a claim to the court, challenging the 69 percent hike on his property assessment, which jumped from $213,000 to $361,000 in 2022.
A notice issued by the municipality on Jan. 4, 2022, acknowledged that the average value of a home in the City of Duncan had increased by 34 percent from $399,322 to $533,833.
Mr. Spong called it a “whopping” increase in a letter he penned to the editor of the Cowichan Valley Citizen. “We are at their mercy,” he wrote. He also accused the city’s mayor and administration of having been “bitten by the greed devil” and called on Duncan taxpayers to come together in opposition.
Mr. Spong complained about the city’s administration in follow-up letters to the tribunal and said it lacked leadership.
“I acknowledge Mr. Spong’s frustration with the City’s communication with him, or lack thereof, but find he has not proven the City has acted negligently,” the tribunal wrote.
“Mr. Spong’s property taxes likely increased because the percentage increase of his property value was significantly higher than the average.”
The tribunal said that in order to claim damages, Mr. Spong had to prove the city was negligent in its duty of care to him and that they had failed in that obligation. Ms. Wake’s conclusion was that he had not shown that to be the case. The tribunal dismissed his case.
In 2022, following its assessment increases, the city raised its property tax rate by 5.2 percent and another 8.9 percent this year, according to Blacklock’s.
Duncan city estimates put the average tax on a residential property at $3,365 per year, of which $725 is school tax. Across the country, annual property tax rates for a house valued at $500,000 vary from an average of $1,800 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to $3,600 in Fredericton.
