stock response guide

Question 1

Mandate

Answer 1

BCA’s legislative mandate is to provide and maintain uniform property assessment throughout BC

45 years

Question 2

Assessment Process

Answer 2

please refer to our understanding the assessment process page on our website

Question 3

BCA Role in tax system

Answer 3

we provide values so cities can set tax budgets and rates, property assessments are integral to generating revenue that helps finance community services

Question 4

office location

Answer 4

20161 86 Ave B200, Langley, BC V2Y 2C1

Question 5

BCA funding

Answer 5

primary source of funding is from a tax levy collected from each taxable property

other sources of income include the sale of property information and products to levels of government, private sector, national and international markets

Question 6

key messaging all types

Answer 6

-values of July 1st last year
-BC its assessed at market value
-what is important is that your assessed value is a reasonable reflection of market value as of July 1 of the previous year
-properties percentage change does not establish your assessment value, rather we use sale of comp properties to yours to determine your property value: changes like additions, renos can result in different percent changes to different properties in the neighborhood
-is it accurate when comparing to properties in your neighborhood?
-what are comps?
-BCA assessment search provides comp sales

Question 7

key messaging- strata

Answer 7

all strata properties in the province have been reassessed for the 2023 assessment year. This has resulted in value shifts in neighborhoods and complexes not being similar in all cases

Question 8

managing conversations

Answer 8

keep it short, to the point and about value
-do you know what properties are selling for in your area?
-lets see what there selling for?

Question 9

use comp sales to support the value

Answer 9

don’t talk shift change or percentage
-is the value in line with the comp sales within the same market set
-give them the range of sales and tell them its reasonable
-3 comps is adequate

Question 10

when the value is reasonable dont drag out the phone call

Answer 10

“based on the sales, value is supported and reasonable”

Question 11

“value went up 50% and market was only up 30%

Answer 11

look to the comparable sales, if the value is accurate and reasonable, refer the owner to the sale range

Question 12

% increase is way to high

Answer 12

we are not looking at the % change, we are looking at weather or not the value is reasonable and reflects what your property would sell for

Question 13

my neighbors value stayed the same and mine went up

Answer 13

bring up the properties and speak to the differences

Question 14

customer insists on speaking on the % change

Answer 14

% change is not an indicator of market value, sales of comp properties determine your homes value

Question 15

why is my assessed value higher than what I paid

Answer 15

because the market values were increasing

Question 16

what do you mean all properties are reassessed?

Answer 16

bca annually reviews assessments of all properties. this review is based on sales of comparable properties
-ongoing audits, reviews and market analysis as part of our quality insurance

Question 17

problem with comparing percentage changes to year of year

Answer 17

it assumes the prior years basis for comparison was correct, if the new assessment is intended to correct errors in the prior years then comparing the increase to market trends is irrelevant

Question 18

determination of assessment

Answer 18

comp sales of similar properties
-ongoing audits, reviews and market analysis

Question 19

why time adjust?

Answer 19

looks at how the market changed over the year relative to july 1 and adjusts sale prices to reflect what that price would have been on july 1

by brining it to july 1 bca can better determine assessment valyes as of that date as mandated by provincial legislation

Question 20

Assessment higher than current market value

Answer 20

in addition to market changes, your assessment may reflect changes due to other factors such as physical changes to the property in the past year

Question 21

change from the previous year

Answer 21

changes in assessed values over the previous year are not determined by adding fixed percentages to the previous years property assessments, % change does not establish your assessment, instead comp sales are analyzed

Question 22

change in building value

Answer 22

every year we conduct ongoing audits, reviews and market analysis as part of our quality insurance
-collected by field inspections, building plans, city permits and other sources,
-as part of this process it was determined that a change in your assessed value was appropriate in order to be fair and equitable

Question 23

change in land value

Answer 23

in addition to reviewing sales we conduct ongoing audits, reviews, and market analysis. these reviews result in changes that reflect market value

Question 24

building value residual

Answer 24

in general, land value is first determined based on vacant sales than contributory value of improvements is added to bring the total value of the property in line with the market as of july 1

Question 25

time adjusted process calculations

Answer 25

calculates typical sales to assessment ratio (SARs) for each day and then calculates the percent change between a days typical SAR and typical SAR on July 1. that percent change is then applied to the days sales prices

Question 26

the media says that assessments went up x% in my city but my assessment went up y% why?

Answer 26

not all neighborhoods increase or decrease at the same rate, when considering your property assessment the most important value is the total assessment, which is an estimate of market value around july 1

Question 27

land residual

Answer 27

in order to split your value between land and improvements BC assessment starts with a cost of constructing your unit along with a share of common improvments in your strata, we then subtract this value from our estimate of your properties total market value, difference gets attributed to the value of your lanf

Question 28

commercial properties

Answer 28

income and expense reports to who may have expiring leases. from these requests we receive information on new lease rates, vacancy rates and expense ratios

Question 29

BC’s Freedom of information and protection of Privacy Act FOIPP act provides that public bodies such as BCA protect from disclosure

Answer 29

cant give on phone but they can come in person

Question 30

confirm identity of the requestor based on the information in IAS

Answer 30

mailing address
names of the owners of the property
legal description
approximate date of when they purchased the property
spelling of the property owners middle name
phone number