HomeMy WebLinkAboutFND-018-04
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REPORT
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
Meeting:
GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2004 Resolution #:~ PA?L.7-(ff
Date:
Report #: FND-018-04
File#:
By-law #:
Subject:
CLARINGTON ADDRESS LOCATIONS
Recommendations:
It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee
recommend to Council the following:
1. THAT Report FND-018-04 be received for information; and
2. That the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation be thanked for their
assistance in this matter.
NT/hjl
1305
REPORT NO.: FND-018-04
PAGE 2
BACKGROUND:
It came to the attention of our Tax Department in mid-April 2004, that there was a
problem with the information being entered by the various lawyers' offices when
registering land transfers of property ownerships within our Municipality on the new
automated land registry system.
The problem became apparent when the supplementary assessment rolls were being
returned with the address noted as Clarington rather than Bowmanville, Courtice,
Newcastle, etc.
As an interim measure, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)
immediately performed a reverse postal code lookup on their database and corrected
any that required changes.
The Mayor immediately sent a letter to the Land Registry Office requesting that the
situation be resolved.
A meeting was then co-ordinated at MPAC head office between the Director of Land
Registration with the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, the Director of Data
Processing and Collection- Property Values with the Municipal Property Assessment
Corporation, Clarington's Municipal Account Representative with MPAC, and Clarington
Staff on July 20, 2004.
It was determined at that meeting that the issue revolves around the land transfer
affidavits. Under the section for property location, the registry office provides automated
selections. Unfortunately, these selections were programmed based on legal address
(ie. Concession 1, Part Lot 2 etc.), not location or mailing address. Therefore, the legal
offices using the new automated system had no choice but to select Clarington,
Darlington, or Clarke. However, this section was not intended for use outside of the
registry system.
There is another "address for service" address that was to be entered by the legal offices
that is totally free- form, whereby any location could be entered. This is the information
that is automatically transferred to MPAC for the assessment rolls. It appears that the
legal offices were making the assumption that, if they could not enter the correct location
in the one field, that the other field had to be filled out the same way. Of course, by
entering Clarington here, then the wrong infonmation is then transferred to the
assessment rolls.
1306
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REPORT NO.: FND-018-04
PAGE 3
CONCLUSION:
Two actions have been taken to resolve this problem. Firstly, all law firms that are on file
with the tax department received a letter from the Municipality requesting them to enter
the correct town in the "address for service' section regardless of the other fields
entered.
Secondly, the Director of Land Registration was provided with all of the options for
location that should be included in the automated selections in order that the correct
address could be selected. Confirmation was received on August 24,2004 that the
registry system has been updated to include these locations.
It should be noted that, even though this was not a problem with their system, staff at the
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation were very helpful, both in providing an
intermediate solution and in assisting to find a permanent solution.
Copies to:
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation
Michael Porporo, Municipal Relations Representative
Suite 170, Office Galleria, Oshawa Centre
419 King Street West
Oshawa, Ontario L 1 J 2K5
CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON
40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L 1C 3A6 T (905)623-3379 F (905)623-4169
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