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Cowichan assessments up five to 15 per cent

Cowichan Valley property owners will start to receive 2017 property assessment notices this week
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Increases in property assessments for those living in Duncan should be at the low end of the scale.

Cowichan Valley property owners,  starting to receive 2017 property assessment notices this week, will see increases in residential property values of anywhere from five to 15 per cent.

According to Bill Dawson of BC Assessment in Nanaimo, the average increase for Duncan should be at the lower end of that range, with North Cowichan at six to eight per cent, and Ladysmith seeing increases closer to 15 per cent.

In Lake Cowichan, the increase is from zero to 10 per cent with most residential properties at about five or six per cent, he said.

“It’s all about the market value of properties,” he said. “That’s what drives it. What our appraisers do every year is take a look at the sales during that second and third quarter of each year, around July 1. We compare them to what assessments were last year and make the appropriate changes in our base rate to reflect how much a certain community has increased or how much a certain neighbourhood has decreased, depending entirely on what the market is telling us. For instance, we don’t take a look at Oak Bay sales when we are looking at Cowichan Lake sales, otherwise the assessments would go up a lot more in Cowichan Lake.”

However, all the Cowichan Valley increases are low compared to those experienced in other parts of the Island, even north of Victoria, usually a real-estate hot spot.

“We’ve seen increases of from 10 to 20 per cent in the City of Nanaimo, with the median being about 14-15 per cent,” Dawson said.

“It all comes down to what people are willing to sell their properties for. When we took a look at the real estate prices in the City of Nanaimo, there was a necessary increase there.”

Realtors have reported a lack of inventory of homes to sell in the Cowichan Valley and Dawson said, “That is a common trend during 2016 in a lot of locations on Vancouver Island. I heard the same kind of discussion in Nanaimo and, of course, in Victoria where you are seeing assessment increases of anywhere between 10-35 per cent. There’s a real lack of inventory there. It does come down to those demand and supply curves.”

So, now that you’re looking at your property assessment notice, the next step, if you want to learn more is to go to “evaluebc” on the Internet.

“That is BC Assessment’s internet presence. Property owners can learn how their assessment was built. They can take a look at the inventory that we actually have on their property and can actually verify it through that web-based tool and tell us whether it’s accurate.

“They can take a look at the assessments of neighbours to make sure they are being treated equitably,” he said.

“And they can also take a look at the sales that our appraisers actually used in coming up with their individual assessment so they can be clear in their own mind that it’s a fair assessment and a fair representation of market value as of the first of last year,” Dawson said.

Next, after you do your own research on evaluebc, then you can still talk to an appraiser if you wish.

But, if any property owners still have questions that are unresolved in their minds, they must have a letter of appeal in by the end of January.

“I’m very confident that after they take a look at evalue bc or speak to one of our appraisers, they’re going to have a lot of confidence in the value that our appraisers have on the roll this year,” Dawson said.

Also, contact BC Assessment if you don’t get your assessment notice. However, if your address information needs to be updated, you must notify both organizations: BC Assessment and the land titles office. Check out ltsa.ca for more information.