HUNTER – Appealing your property assessment is not daunting

By SADIE HUNTER

WHEN I OPENED THE ENVELOPE containing my 2023 Property Assessment Notice from BC Assessment last week my jaw dropped and expletives came out.

While the average change in property values across the city of Kamloops is an increase of 13 per cent, my property value increased by 73 per cent. My spouse’s response was similar to mine when I texted him a photo – WTF?

At first, I dismissed it as being related to being in a newer multi-family building, so I assumed it was an adjustment based on the status of the land changing from being land only to land plus a building. But the more I thought about it and talked to friends, the more something seemed amiss. How could our assessment be 60 per cent higher than the city average?

Whether your assessment seems high or low, it’s definitely worth ensuring it’s accurate. The first step in doing this is logging on to the BC Assessment website and doing a comparative property search.

This will show you the value for similar properties in your area and the value of recent nearby sales. This is important information because the assessments are based on the market value of your property on July 1, 2022.

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Sadie Hunter is a former Kamloops City councillor.