Property owner Harold Berg has not paid taxes in two years on land he owns since he believes it is not worth as much as a provincial agency says it is.
Berg is having a dispute with the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) over property he possesses at 591 Skeena Street. A Quonset hut — built to store farm machinery — that lacks plumbing and is crumbling is the only building on the 100-foot-by-50-foot lot. For years the property had an appraised value of $87,000, while he paid about $1,300 a year in taxes.
Reassessment increases property value
That all changed in 2017 when SAMA increased the assessed value of his property to $231,600. This, Berg told the Moose Jaw Express, is an increase of more than 166 per cent. He disagrees with this valuation.
“Oh terribly, terribly. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
His property taxes also increased three-fold to about $4,000 a year. He has not paid those taxes for the last two years, so he now owes more than $9,000. He does not plan on paying since he figures that’s the only way to get SAMA’s attention.
“I winter in Arizona now,” he said. When he came back in April 2017 and argued the increase was too much, he was told he should have appealed before the end of March. “I have done everything to appeal the case, to no avail.”
Berg attempted to have a SAMA representative visit his property in 2017 to see the building’s condition, but they allegedly refused.
He wanted his problem to be known since he believes SAMA — an agency of the provincial government — is using “extortion tactics.” He also wants a reduction in his property assessment.
SAMA responds
The SAMA office in Moose Jaw has spoken with Berg eight times in the last two years, explained office manager Nancy Wollner, while she recently spoke to him for an hour to discuss how the assessment process works.
“I explained it to him,” she said. “He said, ‘I’m right and you’re wrong.’ There just seems to be a lack of understanding about the process in this province … . It is complicated.”
Berg came to the office in 2017, but only after the opportunity to appeal had closed, Wollner said. He spoke with a senior appraiser, who explained how mass appraisal works and how they arrived at his property’s value. The senior appraiser told Berg to call the City of Moose Jaw in 2018 so he could appeal to the board of revision. However, the SAMA office learned Berg did not appeal in 2018 or 2019.
SAMA reassesses properties in Saskatchewan every four years based on market data, so Jan. 1, 2017 was the base date when the reassessments happened, explained Wollner. However, there is usually a two-year lag in information, which means the adjusted values were based on the sales of properties as of Jan. 1, 2015. This means SAMA used the sales of properties and rental information from landowners from 2011 to 2015 as market data to determine the property values.
Therefore, the change in Berg’s property value was based on the change in market value from 2011 to 2015, she added. The next reassessment period is in 2021; that will be based on data from Jan. 1, 2019.
“I know he thanked me. He said I was the only one who listened to him, but he just doesn’t like his value … ,” Wollner said. “We’re very comfortable with the value that we have on Quonsets, (which) went up a lot in that last year’s four-year cycle.”
Renting a Quonset hut
Berg was renting out half the Quonset hut for $710 a month — he uses the other side for storage — but increased the rent to $750 a month to compensate for the increase in property taxes, he explained.
“The building is not worth any more than what I’m paying,” he continued, adding it is horrible to heat and the asphalt floor is crumbling.
“I offered to sell it to any of them for 50 per cent of the appraised value. No takers,” said Berg with a hint of sarcasm. “The building never was — never will be — worth that kind of money. At least not in my lifetime.”
Appeals process
“I know that he’s saying he’s renting (the Quonset) for lower than everybody else, but lawfully, we can’t just take his own data and value his own property. We have to use everything that we’ve collected,” said Wollner. “And then we look at that and compare to what they’re selling for.”
SAMA officials attempted several times to meet with Berg to inspect his property, but it was difficult, she continued. Both parties recently agreed to meet next month to inspect the property.
“I don’t know what more I can say to him,” Wollner said. “From my perspective, he just doesn’t believe the property is worth the value we have on it … . He really should go through this appeals process.”
If he doesn’t like the board of revision’s verdict, Berg can appeal to the province, and if necessary, to the court of appeal.
All SAMA appraisers across the province — whether in Moose Jaw or Saskatoon — are bound by the same laws the provincial government lays out, said Wollner. Everyone who owns a Quonset hut in Saskatchewan — there are 50 such buildings in Moose Jaw — is affected the same way. The data is based on four years of sales of that particular building.
Real estate valuations
Berg pointed out it was only SAMA that seemed to observe the rise in property values. He attempted to have a friend who is a real estate agent list his Quonset hut at SAMA’s assessed value. His friend refused, saying he did not want his name associated with the price of the building and the property.
Other real estate agents with whom Berg spoke say the building is worth roughly $100,000, which is about fair market price.
“SAMA is the only ones in Moose Jaw that insist … their assessment should stand,” he added. “It’s immaterial how they arrived at (the value). (Their) system is flawed … . It does not work on this building in this case.”
