Owners of fire-damaged condos floored as assessments double
Resident at fire-damaged Glen Drive complex sees value of unit jump more than 100 per cent
Katherine Munro knew the assessment on her Coquitlam condo was going to rise, but was floored in December to get a warning from B.C. Assessment that the increase would be over 100 per cent.
Munro’s building, part of the Glenborough on 2915 Glen Dr., was heavily damaged by a massive fire that made local newscasts in February 2015 and is just now in the finishing stages of a $12-million restoration.
“It was quite a shock,” said Munro, a 57-year-old speech-language pathologist.
B.C. Assessment’s appraisals in the 28-year-old, 77-suite building were cut back because of the damage, Munro’s about 24 per cent, so she knew values would eventually bounce back to reflect the surrounding neighbourhood.
She and her neighbours, however, were dealt a double whammy on their 2018 property assessments by soaring demand and rising prices for strata properties to start with at the same time fire damage in their building came close to completion.
“I totally understand that our units, the value needs to be equivalent to units around us,” Munro said. “It just seems B.C. Assessment is jumping the gun a bit by doing it this year if it’s actually based on (the building’s) value at Oct. 31 when the building was not inhabitable.”
However, the state of the building’s repairs in 2017, compared with 2016, did play a major role in the assessment change, said Paul Borgo, B.C. Assessment’s acting area assessor for the region.
“The 2017 assessment role reflected fire damage, the 2018 assessment role did not reflect fire damage,” Borgo said.
Major repairs are almost complete, said Allan Grandy, the Glenborough’s strata manager with the management firm Strataco Management Ltd., but the building still isn’t occupied.
“They’re doing finishing work and getting final inspections and permitting, so they are pretty close,” Grandy said.
However, since no one has yet been able to move back in, Munro would appreciate a grace period in the rebound of their assessments in order to absorb the impact such a dramatic increase in assessments will have on her and her neighbours’ property taxes.
“It’s not as if I think (B.C. Assessment has) totally overvalued us to other properties around us, I just feel they’ve done it too soon,” Munro said.
B.C. Assessment documents show Munro’s 2018 assessment shot to $396,000 for 2018 from $196,100 a year ago. Other assessments in the building topped $400,000. Unit 305, for example, sold in July for $352,000, according to B.C. Assessment, and was valued at $413,000 on its 2018 assessment.
In Munro’s neighbourhood, a densifying district near Coquitlam Centre and between two new SkyTrain stations, B.C. Assessment valued 402E-3081 Glen Dr. at $460,000, a 44-per-cent increase from $319,000 a year ago.
And around the corner, a bigger two-bedroom suite at 204-2978 Burlington Dr. shot up 38 per cent to $501,000 from $364,000 a year ago.
Such assessment shocks are not uncommon when strata properties suffer fire, flooding or other damage, according to Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condo Home Owners Association of B.C.
“There (is) no shortage of examples across the province where this has occurred,” Gioventu said, but assessments and property values typically bounce back “as soon as a building is restored and people are back in their units.”
Borgo said assessors are always willing to listen to the concerns of owners. If those discussions don’t resolve their questions, homeowners have the option to appeal.