Appraiser Blaine Porsnuk gave a presentation during this week’s Committee of the Whole meeting in Creston.
He says homeowners have between January 1 until the January 31 t to contact BC Assessment to make an inquiry regarding their assessed home’s value. It then goes to an independent property assessment review panel, which unique to each town.
“They make a decision in regards to whether they believe it should be lowered or whether they agree with BC Assessment’s decision.” Porsnuk explains. “They are an independent group. So they do not have anything to do with BC Assessment. They just make decisions on the appeals.”
He says the members are chosen by the Provincial Government. They could be realtors or laypersons who understand the community. If BC Assessment finds overwhelming evidence that the panel makes an error, they may in turn appeal their decision as well.
If the Homeowner is dissatisfied with the panel’s decision, may take it further to the Property Assessment Appeal Board, also chosen by the Provincial Government. That process costs $30 and must by submitted by April 30. For more details on how to appeal your home’s assessed value visit this link to the BC Assessment website.
Porsnuk also gave some staggering numbers on the value of the roughly 2 million homes in BC.
“When you add the value up of those 2,067,000 [residential properties] across the province, you get a total value of [roughly] $1,990,000,000.”
He also explained that if your home’s value goes up along with everybody else’s in your town, property taxes stay the same. But if your home’s value rises above the average in town, only then will there will be an increase.