More fair, less taxing

A woman who could not pay her property taxes due to financial hardship sought our help after her municipality refused her request to cancel her debt. Instead, it took steps to sell her property. Her complaint raised several questions of fairness, including whether the municipality gave her adequate notice about when she would have to leave the property. Our staff raised these concerns with the municipality. The Ombudsman also wrote to the council and shared best practices to address the issues we identified.

RESULT: As a result of our intervention, the municipality developed a new tax policy, which includes guidance for staff to provide reasonable notice to people who must vacate a property as part of a tax sale, and to provide them with housing support referrals. The municipality also sent a letter of apology to the woman. Staff at the municipality told us our best practices helped them work with other owners in similar situations, resulting in the municipality not having to move forward with tax sales for these properties.

Read about how we helped other people in our Selected cases.