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| Do You Want Lower Rental Rates? | |||||||
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Do You Want Lower Rents? Would you like your rent lowered by $50 to $100 a month? There is a way that's not difficult. If you live in a multi-residential apartment building, one with more than 6 units, the municipal taxes on that unit in Kingston are 265% higher than on similar units in buildings with 6 or fewer units. It's 245 % higher in Napanee. It is similar in Gananoque, Belleville and Trenton. If you think it is your landlord's taxes, think again. Every time the taxes go up, your landlord may apply to the Rental Board for rent increases to cover the tax increase, plus the statutory amount. If the taxes go down, the savings must be passed on to the tenants. Each rental unit has its own assessed value to which the city applies its tax rate to determine the taxes for that unit. The landlord then collects the rent and pays the taxes. The landlord is like a retailer who may own the store and the merchandise, but collects sales taxes from his/her customers for the tax department. That is why landlords have not fought this; it is not their problem. It's a tenant problem! Will It Really Happen? It has already happened! On Tuesday, October 8, 2002, Kingston City Council voted to reduce the taxes for all multi-residential buildings by 14.1 % for 2003. Municipal taxes make up about 20% of your rent. A 14.1% tax reduction normally should result in about a 2.82% rent reduction. However, the overall tax rate for the City of Kingston went up by about 15% last year. Therefore, most landlords did not experience a tax increase and thus did not go the the Rental Housing Tribunal for a rent increase to cover the general tax increase. In that respect, the tenants won but did not know it. You can stop a rent increase to cover a tax increase by helping. Better still, with enough effort, we can get you a rent reduction of $25 to $75 per month. Watch this space for further information. This came about by landlords and tenants working together for justice, we all won! Thanks for your support. News Flash! The tenants in Amherstview and Napanee received a 10% reduction in their multi-residential tax bill for a second time in 2002. The bad news is that no one asked council in 2003 for a reduction and nothing happened. The new county council refused to lower the excessive taxes in 2004. This council wants to continue over taxing tenants to subsidize home owners. Gananoque got its taxes lowered by 10% in 2002 as well. The multi-residential tenants in Ottawa all got a notice of rent decrease too. It really works! The City of Kingston just approved the residential rate for all new apartment construction. In Kingston, this means that the tenants in a new waterfront apartment complex will pay 63% lower taxes than their neighbours in slightly older buildings. There is a newer apartment building at Bath Road and Portsmouth Avenue. The tenants in the two older buildings on each side of the new one will pay 265% higher taxes through their rents than the tenants in the new building. How can anyone justify that? In South Frontenac Township, there is only one residential tax rate regardless of the size of the building. Ottawa, Niagara and York all are going to one tax rate in 5 years or less! Ottawa has lowered its tax rate by 10%. In Ottawa, they even have a very informative website on the subject at www.tlft.org. Check it out. Equalizing tax rates is the right thing to do. The Tenant Protection Act, Section 136 (1) states "If the municipal property tax for a residential complex is reduced by more than the prescribed percentage, the lawful rent for each of the rental units in the complex is reduced in accordance with the prescribed rules." If the taxes go down, your municipality will notify you of a rent decrease; it is not up to the landlords generosity. If you would like more information on this, call the Ontario Rental Boarde at 1-888-332-3234. It's Absurd! Imagine that you live in a lovely 6 unit apartment building. The taxes are $500 per unit per year for a total of $3,000. The landlord then adds a 7th unit in the basement. The building is then taxed at the multi-residential rate and the tax on each unit goes to $1,325 for a total of $9,275. The landlord could then apply to the Tribunal to increase the rent by $825 per year, per unit, just because you now have one more neighbour! It is a tax on the number of neighbours in your building. Only a small part of the tax is for the value of your unit. It's absurd! It is also absurd because multi-residential buildings are very efficient for the municipality to service compared to rows of private homes. How Did This Happen? Homeowners tend to be politically active when it comes to property taxes. They want more services, and lower taxes. Tenants never see tax bills, only notices of rent increases; they blame the landlord for this. Most municipal councillors own their own homes and also benefit from this. The average tenant has only 51 % of the income of homeowners and must rent. We now have the situation where we have the poor seniors, the working poor and those on assistance paying a much higher tax rate than homeowners and councillors. Kiss affordable housing goodbye. Need Affordable Housing? It is said that the private sector cannot build affordable housing. They can. The multi-residential taxes increase the rents to levels that many cannot afford. Many municipalities then build and maintain very expensive public housing at the taxpayers' expense. Often we hear about the homeless problem and child poverty, while the tenants in multi-residential buildings are taxed at the highest rate. Perhaps you should explain to your councillor that equal tax treatment would assist many poor tenants. You are not looking for tax breaks or subsidies, only equality with them! If you built a new high rise apartment building, you would have to pay the city about $900,000 impost fees for infra-structure. The city then taxes all multi-residential apartments more than one year old at 265% of the residential rate. That's a lot of money from affordable housing which is why it is not that affordable. Try to get a zoning change for affordable housing. Don't blame your landlord if nothing gets built. Will Equal Taxes Hurt Homeowners? Equalizing taxes will not hurt homeowners much because the assessed values of private homes are much higher than apartments. You could reduce the taxes on multi-residential properties by 75% and only raise residential rates by 10 % depending on the assessment mix in each municipality. Should it be phased in? Suppose someone has his/her house incorrectly over-assessed by 265% by the property assessor. He/she would then pay $5,300 a year in taxes while his neighbour paid $2,000 for a similar house. Should the correction be phased in over 10 years to be fair to his neighbour who does not want an increase? Should tenants wait to be taxed equally? Ask your councillor for his or her opinion. Better Than A Lottery Ticket If you bought a $10 lottery ticket and won $750, you would be quite pleased. If the prize was $750 every year, you would be ecstatic. If you found out that the tickets were free and that every one was a winner, would you tell your friends? That is what you need to do now. It is the tenants that can win this rent reduction; the city won't do it for the landlords. Be sure to tell all your friends in multi-residential buildings to look at this website. What You Need To Do. If you want to save $50 to $100 a month on rent, speak to your municipal councillor. Please follow the links below for a complete listing of Mayors and Councillors for: County of Lennox and Addington
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