RESIDENTIAL, FARM, AND RECREATIONAL PROPERTY APPEALS

 

Commencing with the 2004 appeal season, the Board will change its processes for residential, farm, and recreational property appeals.  The Board’s goal is to resolve as many of these appeals as possible without a hearing, and when a hearing is required, to provide a simplified and more cost effective hearing process for all parties involved.

 

 

Reasons for change in approach:

 

§         The current process for the resolution of residential appeals involving formal in person hearings is not proportionate to the tax dollars in issue.

 

§         Where a hearing is required, considerably more resources go into hearing and deciding a residential appeal than is ever at issue in terms of the tax dollars at stake.  This includes the cost for those appealing (appellants), BC Assessment, and the Board, to prepare for and attend a hearing.

 

§         During the past couple of appeal seasons, the Board has found pro-active appeal management to be an effective tool for resolving most residential, farm, and recreational property appeals without a hearing and at minimal cost to all parties and the Board.  This approach has been most effective when the parties were willing and able to discuss their potential evidence during the telephone Appeal Management Conferences (AMC’s).

 

§         The Board has significantly increased the resolution rate for residential, farm, and recreational property appeals without a hearing, but is of the view that these rates can be improved further.

 

§         Many residential, farm, and recreational property appellants have commented that the hearing process is too formal.

 

§         Many appellants are simply seeking more information about how their property has been assessed and are more concerned about understanding what the assessor has done than in providing their own evidence of value.

 

 

Approach to Residential, Farm, and Recreational Property Appeals in 2004:

 

This approach is for appeals of single family residential property, recreational residential property, vacant residential land (unless the issues are more complicated), and farm land.

 

The Board will hold a telephone AMC for every appeal.  The parties will be asked to be prepared to discuss their potential evidence at the AMC and the appeal manager will endeavour to have the parties resolve the appeal or commit to discussions that may lead to resolution.  The appeal manager may offer non-binding evaluations of the merits of an appeal with a view to assisting the parties with resolution. 

 

Residential, farm, and recreational property appeals may be heard by way of written submission or informal oral hearing with written submissions. Given the costs associated with in person hearings, most appeals will be heard by way of written submission only.  Hearing dates and dates for production of submissions will be set at the AMC.  Reasons for setting an appeal for an in person hearing include language or literacy difficulties, factual disputes (particularly in farm appeals), and credibility issues. 

 

The appeal manager will have discretion around scheduling and the method of hearing an appeal.  Criteria for making a decision to schedule more time for a residential, farm or recreational property hearing, or to treat an appeal more formally may include:

§         More complicated issues

§         The nature of the evidence that will be produced

§         Group appeals

 

 

Written Submission Approach

 

When hearings are conducted by written submission, the appeal manager will set dates for the production of evidence and submissions (including documents and written reasons and argument to support a party’s position).   In most cases, the appeal manager will set the same date for both the appellant and the Assessor to provide evidence and submissions to the Board and to each other.  In addition, there will usually be a second date for each party to provide any response or reply to the submissions made by the other party.  The appeal manager may set dates for staggered production at his or her discretion.

 

A Board member will review and consider the written submissions and provide a written decision.  The Board member may ask the parties to attend a telephone conference call to speak to their submissions or respond to questions.

 

 

In Person Hearing Approach

 

When in person hearings are held, they will be simplified and held in an informal setting.  Most hearings will be scheduled for a maximum of 1 ½ hours although it is expected that most hearings will be completed in less than one hour.

 

The parties will be expected to file submissions in advance in writing, including any documentary evidence.  The panel member hearing the appeal will review all documents and submissions before the hearing.  Both parties will have up to 20 minutes or so to summarize their evidence and argument.  The panel member may ask questions of the parties.  The parties may also ask questions of the other party to better understand or clarify the other’s position, but formal cross-examination will not generally be necessary or permitted. The hearing will be mostly in the nature of dialogue and submissions with reference to the written material already filed.  There will be no need for the parties to read through the written material – only hit the highlights and summarize.

 

Normally, residential, farm, and recreational property hearings will not be recorded by a recording secretary and no transcript of the hearing will be available.  The panel chair may record the hearing for their own use for reviewing the evidence and submissions, and for preparing their decision.  Parties may make their own recording of the hearing at the discretion of the panel chair but it will not be an “official” recording.

 

The panel will render a written decision.  While still providing reasons for decision, the written decision will usually be short and simple.