About BC Assessment

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​BC Assessment develops and maintains real property assessments throughout British Columbia in addition to providing real property information.

Assessment information

BC Assessment maintains real property assessments in compliance with the Assessment Act which requires that properties be assessed as of July 1^st each year. To do this, BC Assessment produces assessment information annually to provide tax authorities with a tax base and other information collected about property. 

The purpose of property assessments

Learn about the principles of property assessment through this animation:

Transcript: The Purpose of Property Assessments (PDF)​

Assessment information uses

The assessment information is the product provided to local governments and other taxing authorities containing all of the information on the individual assessments, including classification and value, found within that jurisdiction. The value of all real estate on the annual provincial assessment roll is more than $2.72 trillion and provides the foundation for local and provincial taxing authorities to finance communities with billions of dollars in property tax revenue.  

Assessment notices

As part of this core function, BC Assessment produces assessment notices which contain information related to the assessment of a property and is mailed to all property owners in the province.  This requires the production and mailing of approximately two million assessment notices annually. 

Property information

BC Assessment also provides real property information to its customers.  As BC Assessment transforms into a property information company, we will explore additional ways to offer more value for both our property owner and taxing jurisdiction customers.     ​​

Our business

BC Assessment's business is to provide a stable and predictable base for real property taxation in British Columbia. The corporation determines ownership and tax liability, classifies and values each property in British Columbia. To meet its goal, BC Assessment completes an assessment roll every December 31.

BC Assessment mails individual assessment notices, with entries recorded from the assessment roll, to all property owners in the province. Once audited and authenticated by the Property Assessment Review Panel, BC Assessment presents the assessment roll to various tax jurisdictions: municipal governments, regional districts and the Ministries of Education and Health. The assessment roll is used by tax jurisdictions to form the basis of their tax rolls. Tax jurisdictions set tax rates for each of the nine property classes.

BC Assessment maintains an extensive and up-to-date information database on all properties in British Columbia. Public access to this electronic database is available through BC OnLine. For a fee, BC Assessment will also produce custom information reports.

BC Assessment provides accurate property and value information to:

• tax authorities;
• property owners;
• municipal, provincial and federal government agencies;
• realtors, appraisers, lawyers, bankers, title search companies;
• other private and public agencies.

Financing

BC Assessment's operations are financed principally through a levy on all properties. Other revenue sources include the sale of information services and products to various levels of government, the private sector, and national and international markets.

Checks & balances

The valuation of property by BC Assessment is subject to checks and balances in the form of legislated review and appeal procedures through the Property Assessment Review Panel and the Property Assessment Appeal Board.

BC Assessment produces independent, uniform and efficient property assessments on an annual basis for all property owners in the province.

Structure

BC Assessment operates as an independent, provincial Crown corporation, governed by a Board of Directors and is accountable to the Government of B.C.

The President and CEO of BC Assessment is supported by an Executive Committee. The Board is appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council.

BC Assessment's head office is located in Victoria. Our 11​​ area offices are situated in four regions in various geographic locations throughout British Columbia.

Mandate

The mandate of BC Assessment is to establish and maintain uniform real property assessments throughout British Columbia in accordance with the Assessment Act. The Act also requires that BC Assessment produce annual rolls with assessments at market value.

Assessors determine the market value of land and improvements and enter those values on the Assessment Roll. For 95 per cent of all properties on the Roll, assessed value is the market value as of July 1. The remaining five per cent are subject to legislative restrictions.

BC Assessment is structured in the following units:

• Office of the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
• Assessment
• Customer
• Finance 
• Information and Technology Services
• People  

Office of the President and CEO

Responsible for:

• Overall ma​nagement and co-ordination of BC Assessment's functions, operations, products and services
• Main point of contact for the Board of Directors, the Minister responsible for BC Assessment, the Office of the Premier, and other senior government officials and assessment bodies
• Communications and Government Relations:
• Media support and materials for public understanding of the property assessment process, awareness of BC Assessment products and services
• Liaison with Provincial Government on assessment-related issues
• Information access and privacy

Assessment

Responsible for:

• Performance of regional field operations for property data collection, roll production, quality control and customer service 
• Non-market and market property assessment
• Assessment administration
• Development of assessment standards, methods and tools
• Data analytics and quality assurance

Customer

Responsible for:

• Focus on and accountability to BC Assessment's key customer groups: Property Owners, Taxing Authorities, BC Public Service, and Commercial Users of Property Information
• Assessment Roll production and delivery
• Property information products and services
• Property Assessment Review Panel (PARP) and Property Assessment Appeal Board (PAAB) support
• Assessment legal services

Finance

Responsible for:

• Financial Services
• Facilities  
• Procurement
• Internal audit services
• Planning and Risk Management 
• Business Advisory Services
• Continuous improvement

Information and Technology Services

Responsible for:

• Services Delivery
• Solutions Development 
• Supporting the informat​ion and technology needs of both employees and external customers
• Centre of Excellence for information and technology management

People

Responsible for:

• Talent management
• Labour relations
• Capacity and succession planning
• Change Management 
• Employee and performance compensation
• Training and development

For more information about BC Assessment please email us at connect@bcassessment.ca or submit your question here.​