One Spallumcheen resident has found some sympathetic council ears about his taxes.
Dudley Price is asking the township to reimburse him for overpayment of taxes for the past 13 years after discovering his Lansdowne Road property isn’t as big as he was told it was when Price bought it in 1999.
“I purchased the property, which was on your tax roll as 3.83 acres, and have paid taxes on 3.83 acres to Spallumcheen ever since,” said Price in a two-page letter to council.
A recent home inspection and bank appraisal for a prospective purchaser of Price’s property found the acreage to be not nearly as large.
Price said he was told that, in 1965, Lansdowne Road was re-routed through his property but that the township failed to change its records, and the information was then sent unchanged to the B.C. Assessment Authority upon its formation in 1974.
Price said the assessment authority did some calculations and, based upon information on the property they had on file from the township estimated the area at first to be 2.005 acres. That was then amended to 2.81 acres.
Price had a survey of his property done last month and it shows his property is 2.48 acres.
“I don’t know who made a mistake and I don’t care, and I don’t care that my property is worth less,” said Price who appeared before council to speak on his letter.
“I do care that the municipality I’ve lived in and loved for 35 years, the same place I have faithfully and religiously paid my taxes, treats me with the same respect I’ve treated them with, and do the right thing.”
Price is asking the township for compensation for overpayment of taxes for the years he’s owned the property, and is also asking for $1,288, the cost of the survey (including HST) which he said he never should have had to have completed.
Councillors Christine Fraser and Rachael Ganson feel if the township made the mistake, Price should be compensated.
“He shouldn’t be paying for a property size that is actually quite a bit less,” said Ganson.
“If that was my property, I would be really upset paying taxes on a larger amount than I actually owned.”
Coun. Joe Van Tienhoven assured Price the matter would be investigated.
“We are going to dig into this and find out where the ball was dropped, when it was dropped and how it was dropped,” said Van Tienhoven.
Chief financial officer Brian Freeman-Marsh said no investigative work into the matter has started except for a few phone calls with Price.
Council voted unanimously on a motion put forward by Fraser to have Freeman-Marsh do a summary of costs for potentially reimbursing Price for the overpayment of taxes and the legal survey.
