2024 BC Property Assessments' Available

Starting this week  – British Columbia property owners will receive their 2024 Property Assessments in the mail from the BC Assessment Authority, an independent provincial crown agency whose sole task is to evaluate the value of property in British Columbia for the purposes of taxation for local governments’ across BC as well as the Provincial Government 

You can now look up your property assessment online on the BC Assessment Authority’s website at https://www.bcassessment.ca/ 

Background from North-Central BC -- https://info.bcassessment.ca/news/Pages/North-Central-BC-2024-Property-Assessments-in-the-Mail.aspx

For municipalities in our Cariboo-Chilcotin Region (residential properties/typically assessed values)

100 Mile House -- down 6% vs 2023

Williams Lake - down 3% vs 2023

Quesnel - remained the same

Wells - up 6% vs 2023

Some property owners may have received a "Early Notification" Letter from the BC Assessment Authority if BC Assessment determines that your individual property assessment will go up higher than the average in your neighbourhood; if your property class has changed (residential to some other property class) or if you previously held an property tax exemption on your property and you were at risk of losing it.  

Full background on this: https://info.bcassessment.ca/Property-information-and-trends/Market%20Trends/Pages/Early-notifications-assessment.aspx

Some quick links: 

 1) Understanding the Property Assessment Process -- https://info.bcassessment.ca/Services-products/Understanding-the-assessment-process 

 2) Property Assessment/Local Property Taxation -- https://info.bcassessment.ca/Services-products/your-assessment-notice 

 3) Appealing your Property Assessment (deadline to file an appeal is January 31st, 2024) -- https://info.bcassessment.ca/Services-products/appeals 

As referenced above, local governments in BC use the Property Assessment information in order to decide local taxes for the year. 

Currently – all Cariboo-Chilcotin local governments’ are in the middle of determining 2024 Budgets. Information on their budget process and public input: 

1) District of Wells -- https://www.wells.ca/ 

2) City of Quesnel -- https://www.quesnel.ca/municipal-services/taxes-utilities/property-taxes 

3) City of Williams Lake -- http://www.williamslake.ca/255/Developing-2023-Budget 

4) District of 100 Mile House -- http://100milehouse.com/district-services/property-taxes-assessment 

5) Cariboo Regional District -- https://www.cariboord.ca/en/regional-government/budget-and-business-plans.aspx 

District of Wells, City of Quesnel, City of Williams Lake and the District of 100 Mile House mails property tax notices to property owners directly while those in rural, unincorporated communities within the Cariboo Regional District receive their property tax notices from the Provincial Government directly (Provincial Surveyor of Taxes) 

For those in rural areas – the Provincial Government has a website for rural property taxation at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/annual-property-tax/rural-area 

If you wish to apply to defer your property taxes – go to https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/annual-property-tax/defer-taxes

I STRONGLY recommend you have discussions with BC Assessment if you don't agree with your 2024 Property Assessment Notice as soon as practical as the deadline to file an appeal is January 31st, 2024. Their phone number is 1-866-825-8322.  You can look up your own property assessment details online (you will need the exact property address or PID (Property IDentifier) Number on your Property Assessment Notice) at http://www.bcassessment.ca while you can research the trends for your own property in the last number of years by registering for a BC Assessment Authority account at https://auth.bcassessment.ca/register/ 

I will, as I do annually, be monitoring property assessments in my own Electoral Area as well as seeing how this impacts on the #CaribooRD's 2024 Budget as well as the setting of Rural Property Taxation from the Province (Rural Tax, Rural Police Tax and School Tax) -- that is set by BC Cabinet Order usually in late April to early May and then seeing what the final result is -- by mid May of 2024.  

Finally – City of Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart writes to his constituents about the relationship between Property Assessment and Annual Property Taxation. Although it is written with the 161 BC Municipalities in mind (including the District of Wells, the City of Quesnel, the City of Williams Lake and the District of 100 Mile House), the principles he outlines are equally applicable to the 27 Regional Districts’ in BC. It is a 4-5 min read but a worthy one – read at https://www.facebook.com/mayorstewart/posts/10158755321580686 and I publicly thank him for allowing me to share this information with you