Hello and welcome to another consumer tip, courtesy of your friends here at TMG The Mortgage Group. If you are a home owner there are two important pieces of mail you should be keeping an eye open for. The first is your property tax assessment. This comes to you from the provincial government. It tells you what they feel your home is valued at as of July 1st. The value they place on your home may not necessarily represent the amount you could sell it for on the open market but it is an amount that is used to determine your annual property taxes.

When you receive this notice, there are a couple of quick things you should do. First go to the provincial web site that sent you the assessment, you will be provided an opportunity to compare your assessment to homes in your neighbourhood. If your assessment is low, don't worry as asking the government to increase the assessment will only raise your taxes. If you feel you have been assessed on the high side there is an appeal process. Next thing to do is file this away in case you need it. I suggest keeping the last two assessments at a minimum.

The other important piece of paper you receive at this time of year is your annual mortgage statement. This should be check especially if your lender pays your property taxes, make sure they are collecting enough to cover your annual tax bill. If they are taking too much, they won't likely give it back unless you ask, and if they are not taking enough you might want to have an adjustment made so that you don't get an unplanned for bill from your local municipality. Both of these little tasks will take you less than 10 minutes and could prove to save you time and money down the road. I'm John Charbonneau here at TMG The Mortgage Group, reminding you that we are never to busy to let you or any of your friends know what your mortgage options are.