Resolutions

Whereas Section 196 of The Cities Act states that a council may set appeal fees payable by persons wishing to appeal their assessments and classify property according to type, value or any other criterion for the purposes of the payment of fees; and

Whereas Subsection 196(6) states that the fees established must not exceed any prescribed maximum fee or the appropriate amount set out in a prescribed schedule of maximum fees; and

Whereas most municipalities have established reasonable fees to allow all appellants to affordably appeal to the local Board; and

Whereas commercial appeals are becoming extremely time consuming and costly for municipalities and local Boards to administer due to varying complexity and professional legal expertise in many appeal cases; and

Therefore be it resolved that SUMA advocate the Government of Saskatchewan to change The Cities Act to allow municipalities, who administer commercial and multi-residential appeals for local Boards of Revision, to charge an administrative fee, in addition to the required appeal fee, based on the assessed value of the property which fee would be non-refundable.

ACTS AFFECTED: The Cities Act

REGION/SECTOR AFFECTED: Cities

• The Ministry of Government Relations is not considering prescribing any new administration fees in addition to the appeal fee set by a municipality, according to current legislation.
• For the payment of appeal fees, a municipality may classify properties according to type, value or any other criterion. Appeal fees can be different for each class of property and could reflect the municipality's administrative costs in handling an appeal.
• Government of Saskatchewan has not set out maximum fees, relying on municipalities to have reasonable fees to allow all appellants to affordably appeal their property assessments.
• To minimize board of revision costs, municipalities are encouraged to work together to appoint a district board of revision and consider an agreement to adjust assessment as the initial step to resolve an assessment appeal before it goes to a board hearing.