Two weeks ago I received a letter from the City of Ottawa to let me know that the lying cheating bastards at MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) were screwing me.
A little back data. In early April 2007 I entered in an agreement to buy my house for $238,900. The final closing date after construction was completed was December 3rd 2007. In 2008 a 2 years freeze in property tax assessment was lifted. McGuinty (another lying cheating bastard) said that some people would see a 20% increase in the value of their house. I saw a 10% increase in the value of my house, from $238,900 => $264,000 which seemed pretty high considering it closed in late 2007 for that amount. Anyway, I checked some real-estate listings and it seemed a little high, but not unreasonable.
Well throughout the summer of 2009, I saw similar houses sell in the range of $255,000 => $275,000 as values continued to rise. I was hoping that it would not be a huge change on my 2009 (if they decided to do one).
Well, what did the bastards at MPAC do? They went back to my 2008 assessment and raised it again! By $31,000. The new 2008 asssessment is $285,000! Maybe it is just me, but in 2008 with an economy falling flat on its face that the value of my house would increase by $46,100 or 19% but leave it to the bastards at MPAC to fudge the numbers to get property taxes levels in order.
Anyway, I now owe another $300 in property taxes from 2008… I can’t wait to see what they do after they find out about my renovations. My house will be $1,000,000 in the next 10 years at this rate!