Property owner regrets purchasing in Saint Andrews

TUESDAY, April 16, 2013
THE SAINT CROIX
COURIER
province
Property owner regrets
purchasing in Saint Andrews
Barb Rayner
Saint Andrews
R
od MacDonald visited Saint Andrews
and fell in love with the town but now,
as his property taxes skyrocket, he regrets ever deciding to purchase a summer home here.
And he retains that view, speaking
last week from his home in Calgary after receiving word the taxes have been
lowered since receiving his initial property assessment and tax notice.
The initial notice assessed his property at 88 Augustus St. at $1,185,900
with the total municipal and provincial
taxes at $30,512.70. He has now been
informed that his assessment has been
adjusted to $679,000 and he said the
total tax bill will be almost $18,000.
That, the result of an assessment
appeal, is still too high, he said.
“It is still higher than it should be
when you compare it around. It is still
almost $18,000 in property taxes and
that is just insane. When you penalize people for being non-residents it
brings the mill rate to the highest in
North America.”
When the Hiram Walker Estate sold
a few years ago, which is a large house
with an inn, a guest house and several
acres of land on the golf course, it was
assessed at less than his Augustus
Street property with only one acre, he
said, and the Kingsbrae Arms was assessed at less than his own property.
When he pointed this out to the assessor he was told the properties were
not comparable, MacDonald said.
“New Brunswick has no mandate
for uniformity of assessment. I think I
have appealed probably six times and I
have never got anywhere.”
MacDonald said the horror stories
people who have appealed have gone
through over the years are unbelievable and he sees no point in appealing
again himself.
“The house still needs a lot of work.
It still has the original windows and
the roof is original and that needs attention.”
But renovations will increase property value, he reasons.
“The tax assessor is right there to
check all the building permits so it ruins the desire to renovate your house.”
It’s also costly to appeal an assessment.
MacDonald said the appraiser
charges $1,000 for an appraisal and
about the same amount to fight the
assessment on the owner’s behalf, all
without any guarantee of change.
“New Brunswick is losing a lot of
people who would be coming to Saint
Andrews. New Brunswick is very behind on almost everything and definitely on taxation.
Mayor Stan Choptiany said the
town has talked to the province about
this issue over the years and raised
it with Finance Minister Blaine Higgs
when he toured the province a couple
of years ago.
“We tried to encourage him to deal
with this. It is almost double the taxes
for non-residents. If we talk to Realtors, they say they have people who
are close to signing but, when they
Page A7
REFLECTING THE COUNTY SINCE 1865
find the taxes are essentially double
for non-residents, it is a deal breaker.”
The mayor said the province’s
White Paper on Property Taxation,
which is a working document, is a
small step in the right direction but it
is not going to stop people from opting
not to buy a second property in New
Brunswick.
“The reality is we were summer
people for about 20 years and we paid
double taxes and, as soon as we were
here as full-time residents, it was magical to see our tax bill drop.”
The double taxation for non-residents certainly has an impact on Saint
Andrews, said Choptiany, and the
town encourages the provincial government to continue to reduce the provincial rate.
In the White Paper, he said, there
are recommendations to reduce the
provincial taxes on non-owner occupied houses. This year there was a reduction from 1.46 per cent in 2012 to
1.3973, Next year it is not moving, then
in 2015 it will drop to 1.277 per cent
and in 2016 to 1.12.
“It says in the White Paper they are
going to drop by 24c over four years so
they are not going away but I guess it’s
a step in the right direction.
“They (the province) are caught in
a tough bind because this is a revenue
source for them. If they cannot do
this, they have to find the money elsewhere but they recognize it is an issue
and from our standpoint we will keep
pushing them to reduce it more.”
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