Yellowknife (Feb 20/04) - A clerical error has forced City Hall to mail out 5,000 new property assessment notices to Yellowknife ratepayers this week.

Ratepayers received their 2003 property assessments last week but because a line on the forms switched 2002 assessments with those for 2003, they had to be mailed again, said Maureen Maywood, acting director of corporate services.

"Basically one line was the current year's assessment and the other line was the previous year's assessment and those lines got reversed," said Maywood.

The mix-up, however, will not affect the amount ratepayers will pay for their property taxes this year.

"It wasn't an error in the assessed value," said Maywood. "It was just a switching of numbers, that's all it was."

One thing the mix-up did do is delay the appeal period for the assessments.

The deadline has been moved from March 26 to April 1.

Also, a City Hall open house for ratepayers with concerns about their assessments, scheduled for last Wednesday and Thursday, has been delayed until next week.