55-PER-CENT INCREASE
COQUITLAM: 1968-era detached home’s assessment approached $1.21m — $1.14m comprised in land value
Retired Coquitlam teacher faces shocking hike in her home’s assessed value and fears she’ll lose part of her homeowner grant and face an outsized tax hike
Coquitlam homeowner Sarah Wilson’s 2017 single-family home property assessment came with an eye-popping 55-per-cent increase in value, sparking fears of a larger tax increase compared with townhouse or condo owners.
B.C. Assessment last month warned Metro Vancouver homeowners to expect dramatic assessment increases, particularly owners of single-family homes, and the documents they’ve put in the mail show increases of 30 to 50 per cent or more for detached (single-family) properties.
In 2016, assessments for detached homes across Metro Vancouver increased around 12 to 28 per cent.
B.C. Assessment doesn’t calculate average changes, but does distribute examples of what it considers typical shifts for neighbourhoods, such as a 46 per cent increase in the assessment of a single-family home in Lynn Valley to $1.64 million.
On Vancouver’s eastside, another single-family home on a standard 33-foot-wide lot shot up 41 per cent to $1.34 million, compared with $947,300 the year before.
Municipalities use property assessments to set tax rates and Wilson, a retired teacher, wonders if B.C. hasn’t reached a tipping point.
“I don’t mind paying my fair share, the trouble is, what’s happening is the percentage of what we pay is based on land values,” Wilson said, and those have been soaring with no connection to a homeowner’s ability to pay or the services they’re using.”
Jason Grant, B.C. Assessment’s area assessor for Greater Vancouver, cautions homeowners that big jumps in assessment values won’t automatically translate into big tax increases, as long as the increase is within the average for their community. That is because municipalities use the average increase in overall assessments to set tax rates.
The value of Wilson’s 1968-era detached home, however, has soared well beyond the 33-per-cent rise in Coquitlam’s overall assessments, which means she will take a bigger hit from the city’s adjusted tax rate for the residential class.
Her home’s 2017 value approached $1.21 million, comprised of $1.14 million in land value and just $63,900 for the dwelling.
And having crossed the B.C. Homeowner Grant’s threshold of $1.2 million, Wilson said she will also start losing some of that assistance to defray her taxes.
Homeowners whose assessment increased below that 33 per cent average will bear less of the 2.13 per cent tax increase Coquitlam City Council approved in December.
Wilson inherited her house, which her parents built in 1968, after her mother died in 2011. And since 2012, her property taxes have increased 24 per cent while her pension has only increased one per cent per year.
Though she could, Wilson is also reluctant to take the option of deferring taxes since the property’s value has gone up for reasons beyond her control.
“It’s one thing to pay my fair share, but why should we be forced into what is essentially a reverse mortgage just because (someone) bought a house years and years ago that has gone up in value?” Wilson said.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart has some sympathy for the situation that Wilson and other city homeowners face and would prefer to have more flexibility in how municipalities charge residents for city services, but defends the transparency of B.C. Assessment.
“If you’re going to tax based on property values alone, this is the right system,” Stewart said.
However, the taxes people pay don’t necessarily correspond to the services people are using.
An older couple still in a single-family home, for example, could face a bigger tax hit this year while a family of five in a townhouse, with an assessment that didn’t appreciate as fast as the house, might get a tax break, Stewart said.
“We should be using property taxes less,” he said.
Municipalities across the Lower Mainland will likely face similar challenges, based on data distributed by B.C. Assessment.
For instance, that 41-per-cent increase for a detached house on Vancouver’s east side compares with a 30-per-cent increase in overall residential assessments, according to B.C. Assessment.
In Burnaby, B.C. Assessment highlighted a 1971-era-home near Deer Lake, which shot up 46 per cent to $2.73 million, as a typical example. Burnaby’s overall assessments, however, only went up 31 per cent.
The scope of changes in assessments did not come as a surprise, said Grant, since they are based on market activity that was widely reported during the year.
“What I was surprised by was the consistency of changes,” said Grant. “That 30 to 50 per cent across the region, which mainly affects single family properties, was really consistent from Squamish to Hope.”