At the beginning of every year the BC Provincial Government sends out a notice to all property owners telling them how much the government thinks their property is assessed at, for the sake of the property taxes. This assessment is based on similar nearby land that has recently sold. The property owner then has an opportunity to check those sold properties, compare them to his own and appeal the assessment if he doesn’t think the assessment was fair.
When I got my assessment for the 14 acres (5.6 ha.) that we own across the road from our house, I was shocked to see that the assessment had risen by 60% from what it was last year. I rushed to check out the properties that mine was compared with, and shook my head in disbelief at what I saw. All of those 5 comparison properties were cleared, relative flat or very gently sloping, (photo of one is above). All five could be easily built on, whereas my property is a steep mountain slope (photo below). I sent in my appeal and today I will have the conference call to defend my appeal.
Not only is my property steep, immediately above it there is a rock slide (bottom photo), something I think is a real potential hazard to anyone who might buy the property and want to build on it. We bought the property to protect wildlife habitat, and in hopes that the trees might protect our house from the rock slide.
It seems to me that my property on the mountain slope should not be compared to the five level properties that my assessment was based on. I hope the assessment board will see it the same way.
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