Richmond County not expecting tax windfall from newly identified properties

An investigation in Richmond County, N.S., has found a large number of properties that are not on the assessment roll, but officials say fixing the problem might not result in a tax windfall.

Last spring, Deputy Warden Michael Diggdon found more than 50 properties that were not being taxed, so he got the Property Valuation Services Corporation to look into it.

The PVSC provides assessment values so municipalities can levy taxes.

Senior manager Lloyd MacLeod said the corporation hired an employee on contract who found more than 1,300 properties with incomplete information.

"She found there was no glaring issue of lost tax revenue," he said. "There was no instances of houses or buildings not being assessed. For the most part, these are small pieces of property. They wouldn't have significant value."

Rural properties with unclear titles

MacLeod said nearly 600 parcels are Crown land that municipalities do not tax, and hundreds more have unclear titles for which owners cannot easily be found.

"Some properties may have changed hands 100 years ago and there's just not the documentation, or people died and they didn't have relatives, and it's very difficult to track who should be the legal owner," he said.

"In most cases, these properties are very rural, or very remote, so the value impact is not significant."

90 parcels added

Ninety parcels are being added to Richmond County's tax roll, but MacLeod said just 18 have names and addresses on the deeds and those are only worth a total of $85,000, so the tax revenue will be minimal.

PVSC is continuing to look into the remaining parcels of land, but MacLeod said the outcome is likely to be the same.

"I would say that's probably a good indication of the other properties," he said.

MacLeod said other rural municipalities likely also have untaxed properties, but the cost of tracking down owners would outweigh the resulting tax revenue.

"I guess if anybody else was considering doing this, this gives them a good indication it may not be worth their time and effort to spend money for the return they're going to get on it," he said.

Diggdon said the process was never intended as a way to boost the county's coffers.

He just wants taxpayers to be treated equally.

"My objective was to just make sure that it was fair right across the county and as long as I can do that, then I did what I set out to do," Diggdon said.

"It won't make a difference financially, but it will in the eyes of the public."

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