Part 42 published on 01/05/13
Superintendent suites have nominal value for purposes of assessment
A number of condominium corporations appealed the realty assessments of “superintendent’s units” owned by the condominium corporations. The Assessment Review Board (ARB) considered three categories of superintendent unit:
- A Super’s Unit owned by a condominium corporation where the corporation’s declaration requires it to be occupied by a live-in superintendent.
- A Super’s Unit owned by a condominium corporation which also owns a guest unit (“Guest Unit”) subject to specific restrictions contained within a corporation’s declaration.
- A Super’s Unit owned by a condominium corporation where the corporation’s declaration refers to a superintendent’s unit but there is no specific provision contained in the declaration requiring occupancy of the Super’s Unit by the superintendent.
The ARB held as follows:
- The Super’s Units (all three categories) constitute an easement within the meaning of Section 12 of the Condominium Act and should be assessed pursuant to Section 9 of the Assessment Act as servient tenements. The units currently have no market value to any third parties and so any value they may possess is to the owners and is necessarily already included within the aggregate assessed values of the residential units.
- There is currently no willing seller and there are no willing buyers for the Super’s Units. As they are not marketable, they have no market value.
The ARB adjusted the assessed values of the Super’s Units to $9.00.
[Editorial Note: In my view, the reasoning in this case (ie, that the assessed value should be nominal) applies to any unit held or owned by a condominium corporation in order to fulfill the objects and duties of the corporation. Note that these issues generally don’t arise in relation to portions of the common elements. The common elements (apart from areas leased for commercial purposes) are not subject to realty assessment and taxation.]