The deadline for homeowners in New Brunswick to pay their property tax bill is now about two weeks away, and with over 15,000 appeals being lodged to Service New Brunswick to date, Opposition leader Blaine Higgs is calling on the premier to extend the May 31 deadline for those who have appealed and those who have had an assessment increase of more than 10-percent.
“Because what they’re being told is pay your bill, even though it’s clearly wrong, they didn’t do an assessment, it’s over 10-percent, and we’ll refund it sometime in 2018,” says Higgs.
“Two things, allow the payment date to move out further for everybody. So move it to a point where they can actually get the right assessment or go back to last year’s numbers and pay last’s year’s tax until we get it right.”
The deadline to pay property tax has been extended to September 1 for over 2000 homeowners who had renovations fabricated.
Higgs believes property owners waiting to hear back about their appeal shouldn’t have to pay more than a 10-percent increase in their property tax, which is the cap unless you have done construction or major renovations to your home, until the appeal process is done.
CHSJ News recently spoke to two homeowners who had been waiting on their appeals, and were feeling stress over the impending property tax deadline. You can read that story here.
