Property Taxes

The County of Lambton is comprised of an "upper-tier" and a "lower-tier". The upper-tier is the County government, while the lower-tier is comprised of eleven local municipalities.

The local municipalities are responsible for property tax billings and collection of taxes on behalf of themselves, the County government and the Province (education taxes). They determine how many and when installments are to be paid and handle the processing of all adjustments, supplementary billings and write-offs affecting individual accounts.

The County government is responsible for the setting of general property tax policy. This involves setting tax ratios (the difference in rate paid by different classes of property), treatment of property used by charitable and like organizations, tax deferral and administration of Provincial 5% "tax cap" legislation.

There are two other entities that impact property taxation. The first is the Province of Ontario that sets the education tax rate used to fund the operation of the county of Lambton's separate and public school systems. The second is the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which is an independent third party with the responsibility of determining the value for tax purposes of all properties in the Province of Ontario.

If you have a question about your property tax billings, please contact your local municipal office:

Vacancy Rebate Program

At its meeting on Wednesday, November 6, 2019, Lambton County Council eliminated the vacancy rebate for commercial and industrial property classes, effective the 2020 taxation year.

As was discussed during the meeting, the County of Lambton is following measures that several other larger municipalities have taken with respect to the elimination of vacancy rebates. The Province and a majority of municipalities have acted to eliminate these rebates because valuation methods and protocols have evolved and negated the reason they were created when Current Value Assessment was first introduced.

Property owners who cannot lease vacant premises will still be able to obtain relief through MPAC's reassessment processes, but the time, effort and cost required for processing vacancy rebates will be eliminated.

Notification has been given to all local area municipalities that are impacted by this change. Eligible property owners will be able to apply for the vacancy rebate for the 2019 taxation year. The rebate will be eliminated effective the 2020 tax year.