Assessment Update January 2023

You should have received your assessment notices by now. The appeal deadline is Jan 31, 2023. Some points to note:

  1. Additional School Tax is charged on development sites that have any 01 Residential portion whether vacant or there is a house on it ($100,000 on a 37,000sf site in Richmond, for example). Peter Austin contends that it is not vacant as it is in the development process and should not be charged this tax.
  2. Properties under construction are mostly assessed on the residual approach. The costs to complete are deducted from the estimated sale price of the units as July 1, 2022. Last year, in a number of cases, we found that BC Assessment did not deduct sufficient expenses, or they used suite values that were too high. Both are affected by higher interest rates. The consequence of these will result in an over-assessed property.
  3. Valuation date is as of July 1, 2022.
  4. Property does not need to be owned for an appeal to be lodged. Assessments for Properties under offer or closing in 2023 should be reviewed.
  5. BCA has increased most values as values are higher than at July 1, 2021. The question is “is the increase too much?”. Even if the increase seems fine, the previous years’ value may have been high.
  6. Non receipt of notice is not an excuse to miss the deadline. Contact us if you did not receive any notices.
  7. BCA will not be aware of any negative changes in your property.

A number of articles that cover various topics are at www.austinrealestateconsultants.ca

If you have any questions or would like us to check value or class, please contact Peter Austin at 604-733-3282.  He has been reviewing assessments for over 40 years.