Toronto property assessments are shielded from public scrutiny. This is how we discovered many of us were over-taxed

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In cities across the United States, property assessment and sale data is readily available to the public. In Ontario, it’s fiercely protected.

We needed just two pieces of information to determine that the mansion on the edge of The Bridle Path neighbourhood was taxed as if it was worth considerably less than its market value.Finding these pieces of information for this house — and for more than 20,000 other residential properties across Toronto — was far more complicated.

The agency told us the data wasn’t entirely theirs to give. While sales data belongs to the province, it is licensed to a company called Teranet, which has an exclusive contract to operate Ontario’s electronic land registry. MPAC relies on this sales data to develop property values and said it would need Teranet’s permission to provide the Star with its assessment records.

We asked the City of Toronto for a copy of its digital roll. We were told its licensing agreement with MPAC “expressly prohibits” such data sharing.Colle says he’s dealt with the agency throughout his political career, as an Ontario Liberal MPP and most recently as the municipal representative for Eglinton-Lawrence where he’s helped constituents challenge their assessments.

, could not be included in a fair analysis. MPAC said when purchasers buy condo units directly from the developer — a common way new homeowners get into the market — such transactions cannot be considered “arm’s length,” meaning they don’t represent deals between knowledgeable, willing buyers and sellers.

 

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