Common Issues for Residential Appeals:

(For guidance on how to research your issue, click on one of the issues below)

  1. The description, including the condition of my property is wrong, creating an inaccurate assessment:
    Description of issue: There may have been changes to the improvements or “physical inventory” (number of buildings and details such as size, number of rooms, etc.) that are not reflected in your assessment. There may be a physical problem with your house that BC Assessment is unaware of that significantly affects its value (e.g. the foundation is cracked). Alternatively, BC Assessment records for items such as size are inaccurate.
  2. My assessment is not at market value (too high or too low):
    Description of issue: Your assessment should be what your property's market value was on July 1st of last year. For example, you may believe you could have sold your property for only $250,000 last July, but your assessment is $300,000.
  3. My assessment is not consistent or fair compared to assessments of other similar properties (equity issue):
    Description of issue: You may be concerned that your property has not been fairly assessed compared to the assessments of similar properties. Your assessment may be inequitable if other properties are assessed at a lower proportion of their market value than your property is.  

    For example, you may agree that your property's $300,000 assessment is at its market value.  However, you find that other properties throughout your area area assessed 20% below their market values. Equity would dictate your property should also be assessed 20% below its $300,000 market value, or at $240,000.

Other concerns:
You may have other concerns.  See the below information on concerns that we often hear from homeowners.  These are usually directly related to one of the above common issues.

Instructions:

  • For how these concerns are usually handled: click on the links in the left column of the below table;
  • For what research you should do: click on the related issues in the right column. 
Some Common Other Concerns: Which issue to Research:
I cannot sell my property now for as much as it is assessed Issue 2: Market value
Negative factors (e.g. noise) reduce the value of my property
Issue 2: Market value
My property requires repairs Issue 1: Property condition
My assessment went up more than my neighbour's or average for the area
Issue 2: Market value
My improvement assessment went up, but my property did not change
Issue 2: Market value
My assessment is higher than other properties
Issue 2: Market value or 3: Equity

There are other issues the Board can deal with that are not covered in this Guide.  We do not use On-line Dispute Resolution for all issues. Contact the Board if you wish to deal with some other issues that are not listed on this webpage. The Board will then advise you of the next steps. See: full list of possible issues.