Watch your Assessments

2007/01/17 Originally published in the Vernon Morning Star.

The deadline for appeal of your property assessment is rapidly approaching. The final date for filing a written request for review is January 31, 2007. You can file in person by taking your written request to your local BC Assessment Office. In the Vernon Assessment area the address is 2820 - 28th Street. You can also fax your request to that office. The fax number is shown on the assessment notice you just received in the mail. Locally, the fax number is (250)545-5603. If you prefer the convenience of filing for an appeal using the Internet, you can do so at www.bcassessment.ca

Also on the www.bcassessment.ca website is a well prepared data bank of home sales. The sale dates range from Jan. 01, 2006 to Oct. 31, 2006. When you type in the area your property is in, up to 100 recent and at least somewhat comparable sales are revealed to you. This helps you have some idea about the data which the tax assessor had access to when he or she formed the opinion of market value as at July 1, 2006, that appears on your tax assessment notice. You can also readily look up the assessment values and recent sale prices of homes in your neighborhood or similar neighborhoods.

Chances are that once you've received this material you will understand and agree with your assessed value (of course, I am assuming you have access to the Internet). However, every year I see a few assessments that one could and should disagree with. Remember, you have a greater familiarity with your property than the assessor does. Often its years between visual inspections by the assessment authority. You may even have more detailed knowledge than the assessor, of properties that were used as the sales comparables. There are just too many properties out there for the assessors to be fully familiar with all of them.

Your Realtor can possibly be of some assistance in your appeal. We can provide copies of sold data to you that we feel are relevant to your property. You can present that data at your appeal meeting or even attach it to your request for review. Your Realtor can also give you their opinion of whether or not they think your assessed value sounds reasonable. If you are thinking of selling this year, this would be a good time for your Realtor to do an evaluation. Then you'd have the current opinion of value for both tax and sales purposes.

Jane Field works with RE/MAX Vernon. Jane has over 30 years experience in the Real Estate business. To suggest topics for future articles or to ask Jane questions, email or call 503-3755.

RE/MAX Vernon | 250.503.3755 | Toll free 1.888.503.3755 | 5603 - 27 ST | Vernon | BC | V1T 8Z5 | Canada

Tax Information

Watch your Assessments