In 1998, Ontario revamped its property tax assessment system and
legislation eliminated the requirement to create separate tenant
assessments on the assessment roll. Although the Municipal Property
Assessment Corporation (MPAC) no longer prepares separate tax bills
or assessments for each tenant of a commercial building,
multitenant properties are valued by assessors using the
Capitalization of Income approach. An assessor prepares a valuation
summary that lists the tenancies at the property and then each
tenancy is ascribed a market rent (not actual rent) that is
capitalized. These valuation records are often referred to as the
"assessor's records" or "working
papers".
There have been many attempts by landlords and tenants to rely
on the assessor's records as a basis for allocating taxes. In
Orlando Corporation v. Zellers Inc., the Ontario Court of
Appeal held that the assessor's records do not constitute
separate assessments. In Sophisticated Investments Ltd.
