Provincial 'cost of assessment' fee adding millions to N.B. property tax bills
Province has allowed fee to double for some homeowners over three years
New Brunswick property tax bills continue to arrive in the mail across the province this week and increasingly questions are being asked about a growing charge that the province adds near the bottom of the invoice.
Shaun Underhill received his bill this week and almost missed the $42.78 amount listed as a "cost of assessment" fee.
"I didn't even know the assessment fee was a thing, to be honest," said Underhill.
The charge is easily overlooked. It's a minor element in the big dollar amounts found in every property tax bill, but in recent years it has become the fastest growing piece.
The fee is set in legislation at $19.40 for every $100,000 that a property is assessed to be worth and has been allowed to remain at that level as property values have soared.
Underhill
says he didn't realize the province charged a fee on his property tax
bill for assessing the value of his house or that it has been
escalating. (Submitted by Shaun Underhill)
In some cases that has allowed the fee to double in cost to homeowners in some communities in just three years.
Underhill lives in Nashwaak where property values have not jumped as much as in other centres. His assessment fee is up 29 per cent since 2020 but he can see how it would escalate much more rapidly for others.
"This fee is a percentage of your assessment. It's not just some flat rate so I would imagine some people's fees have increased quite a lot," said Underhill.
New
Brunswick property tax bills have a line at the bottom, just above the
total, showing a fee charged by the province to assess the property.
It's a minor piece of the total bill but for many homeowners has doubled
in the last three or four years. (Peter Anawati/CBC)
The New Brunswick government has been encouraging municipal governments not to take full financial advantage of escalating assessments and where possible to lower charges including property tax rates to homeowners in the face of rising property values. But the province has not done the same with the cost of assessment fee.
In his state of the province address in January, Premier Blaine Higgs made a point of addressing the problem of rising assessments causing property taxes to go higher and suggested governments should do what they can to disconnect the two.
"None of us want to pay more taxes," said Higgs.
"I want to take a moment and sincerely thank those municipalities who looked at the costs they are incurring, measured it against the extra money and were still able to lower property taxes for each homeowner."
New
Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs made special mention of municipalities
that lowered tax rates in 2024 rather than fully cash-in on assessment
increases in their communities. Nevertheless the province did just that
with its cost of assessment fee. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
But the cost of assessment fee has seen no downward adjustment. Instead it has soared equally alongside property values which in some neighbourhoods has been by a significant amount
On streets like Moncton's Candice Lane, houses assessed for as low as $160,400 in 2021 are valued in 2024 as high as $336,300.
That has pushed property tax bills on Candice Lane up about 30 per cent, thanks to tax rate reductions adopted by the City of Moncton and "spike protection" measures that limit how much of an assessment increase can be taxed in a single year.
However, there are no similar restrictions on the growth of the cost of assessment fee which on some Candice Lane homes, like the assessments, have jumped 110 per cent in three years to $65.
Houses
on Moncton's Candice Lane have had property assessments more than
double over three years in some cases. That led the province to double
what it charges to assess them from, in one case, $31 in 2021 to $65
this year. (Pierre Fournier/CBC)
It's a minor amount that can go unnoticed in a three or four thousand dollar property tax bill, but it has been piling up money for the province.
This year the cost of assessment fee is expected to raise a record $15.8 million from property owners. That is $1.5 million more than last year with most of the increase coming from owners of residential properties.
A request for information from the New Brunswick Department of Finance about why the fee has been allowed to escalate on residential properties was not directly answered, but in a statement the department said the money is used to pay for a variety of expenses it incurs.
"The cost of assessment fees charged to property owners funds the centralized assessment and tax system including administering billing, collections, tax sales and assessment services," the department wrote in an emailed response.
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192 Comments
Finally I get to agree with Higgy
Reply to Frank Brace
rick haars
Charging us to tax us. Makes sense.
Le Wier
Reply to rick haars
It’s a service the government is providing us to tax us. 🙄
David Amos
Reply to Le Wier
Is the GST applied to that service?
Le Wier
Reply to David Amos
No it’s just listed as Total Provincal Tax but ours is the same amount that they charged us for Residential -Other. And the cost of assessment doesn’t look like it was taxed. It’s a bit weird when I
break it down like that.
David Amos
Reply to Le Wier
Also does NB Power apply GST to its service charge and if not why not?
Wilbur Ross.
Higgs sure loves a tax surplus.
David Amos
Reply to Le Wier
Its just another one of those things Higgy does that folks fail to appreciate
Le Wier
Higgs won’t notice he sold his house to his daughter.
David Amos
Reply to Le Wier
I noticed and I think I know why
Le Wier
A provincial tax on a property tax plus the cost of assessment are interesting add ons.
David Amos
Reply to Le Wier
Its more than merely interesting
David Amos
Reply to David Amos
I bet my Father is rolling in his grave laughing a lot lately
Property assessments in our area are uniformly up about 20%, even for vacant lots. This tells me that nobody schlepped out to actually look at any of the properties they're charging an assessment fee on.
This reminds me very much of banks charging hundreds or thousands of dollars in service fees that take an hour's work by somebody paid $25 to do it.
Le Wier
Reply to G. Timothy Walton
Like record keeping fees on bank accounts that are paperless.
Not only did Higgs dramatically raise your property taxes, but he is charging you a "Fee" to do so.
Sad state of affairs we have here in New Brunswick.
Lou Bell
Reply to Raymond Leger
No , the assessment was raised . The Municipality will set the tax rate . Complain to the Municipality .
valmond landry.
Reply to Lou Bell
ok, who amalgamated the municipality and cause this disturbance ?
Ben Brown
It’s not “adding millions “ to a tax bill.
It’s adding $42. and some loose change
Max Ruby
Reply to Ben Brown
This year the cost of assessment fee is expected to raise a record $15.8 million from property owners.
Ed Franks
Reply to Ben Brown
Adding millions to NB property tax bills. Each individual fee will increase and added together they will add millions to the provincial governments revenue.
Ben Brown
Reply to Max Ruby
Or just under $2./month
Donald Gallant
Axe This Tax
Le Wier.
Just think how much property taxes would have been this year without
the residential rebate.
James Macphee
Go to The Dorchester Road between Memramcook and Sackville, There are two lots legitimately separated by one lot all three parcels are the same size, one has a state of the art brand new home built within the last two years and it's assessed at $350,000, and the adjacent parcels both of which are equal, one is $396,000 the other one is $416,000.
The $416,000 parcel of land has a dialect barn on it that is probably 150 years old and has not been used for 75 years, is missing paneling, the wood is rotten and gray and it is slumped over and shifted as if it's falling vertically into a brook on a sloped piece of land. The land hasn't been taken-care of in years and has 6 ft reads while the property with the new home is well manicured and landscaped. Why would the landscaped property, being the far superior of them in appearance, as well as plane of slope, be worth $76,000 less?
peggy legacy cormier
pushing more people who WORK into poverty.
Fred Sanford
The NB property assessment system is broken. My son bought a modest 1970's bungalow in March 2022. His 2023 assessment was based on his purchase price and was almost 40% higher than his neighours with comparible properties. We appealed and were told the neighbours will eventually catch up since the true market value was already priced into my son's house. Well, fast forward to this year, and all properties on his street got slapped with another 21.8% increase - including my sons!
James Macphee
This "Progressive Conservative" government has levyed by way of new, or outright unrepealment of already highest-in-country taxes more so than any provincial government in the country. It appears the
"Conservative" portion of the name as well as the "Progressive" portion of the name are both there for appearance only instead of policy.
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