| Situs | The actual or assumed location of a property for purposes of taxation. In personal property, situs may be the physical location of the property or, in the instance of highly mobile property, the more-or-less permanent location of the property owner. Source: International Association of Assessing Officers. Glossary for Property Appraisal and Assessment. 2nd ed. Kansas City: International Association of Assessing Officers; 2013. | |
| Special Purpose Property | A property with a unique physical design, special construction materials, or a layout that particularly adapts its utility to the use for which it was built; also called a special-design property. Source: The Appraisal Institute. The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal. 6th Edition. Chicago: Appraisal Institute; 2015. | |
| Spouse | (a) a person who is married to another person, or
(b) a person who (i) is living with another person in a marriage-like relationship, and (ii) has been living in that relationship for a continuous period of at least 2 years; Source: Assessment Act 1996. | |
| Statutory Right of Way | An easement without a designated dominant tenement registerable under section 218 (excerpt below).
218 (1) A person may and is deemed always to have been able to create, by grant or otherwise in favour of
(a) the Crown or a Crown corporation or agency,
(b) a municipality, a regional district, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, a local trust committee under the Islands Trust Act or a local improvement district,
(c) a water users' community, a public utility, a pulp or timber, mining, railway or smelting corporation, or a corporation authorized to transport oil or gas, or both oil and gas, or solids, as defined in the Pipeline Act, or
(d) any other person designated by the minister on terms and conditions that minister thinks proper, BCA NOTE: It is possible under section 114 of the Land Title Act to subdivide a property using a statutory right of way plan. Such a subdivision will require the approval of the Registrar of Land Titles.
Source: Land Title Act 1996.
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| Strata Accommodation Property (SAP) | Means a strata lot in respect of which the following requirements are met: (a) the strata lot is in a strata plan that, with or without contiguous strata plans, includes 20 or more strata lots; (b) the strata lot is rented or offered for rent as overnight accommodation for periods of less than 28 days for at least the prescribed percentage of the 12-month period ending June 30 of the year previous to the taxation year for which the assessment roll is completed. Source: Assessment Act 1996. | |
| Strata Plan | A plan that shows real property divided into two or more strata lots. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Stratified Operational and Facility Areas - SOFA | Strata lots which support the day-to-day operational requirements of the complex/building, which may or may not be limited to public/common use, or may be value-adding facilities for owners, tenants, public, etc. SOFA areas may be found in Hotels, Seniors Housing facilities, Multi-family Residential Complexes, Shopping Centres, and Office Buildings. Examples of SOFA’s include stratified lobbies, meeting rooms, dining areas, storage areas, lounges, restaurants, business centre, parking, activity rooms, spas - gyms, hallways, and common areas in shopping centres. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Subdivision | The division of land into 2 or more parcels, whether by plan or by metes and bounds description or otherwise; Source: Land Title Act 1996. | |
| Subdivision Plan | An LTSA plan showing land divided into two or more parcels; or the consolidation of two or more parcels into a single parcel. Source: Land Title Act 1996. | |
| Sublease | An agreement in which the lessee in a prior lease conveys the right of use and occupancy of a property to another, the sublessee, for a specific period of time, which may or may not be coterminous with the underlying lease term. Source: The Appraisal Institute. The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal. 6th Edition. Chicago: Appraisal Institute; 2015. | |
| Submerged Land | Land which lies below or seaward, or riverward from the mean high water mark of a body of water. Source: The Appraisal Institute of Canada. The Appraisal of Real Estate. 2nd ed. Vancouver: UBC Real Estate Division, Sauder School of Business; 2002 | |
| Substantially Damaged or Destroyed | Physical damage amounting to at least 50% + $1 of the assessed value of the affected improvement(s) on a parcel where the owner has suffered disaster, calamity, or other misfortune and who has involuntarily lost the proper use of the property’s improvements. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Supplementary Roll | A replacement roll created to reflect corrections to the Completed or Revised Roll. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Surplus Land | Land not necessary to support the highest and best use of the existing improvement but, because of physical limitations, building placement, or neighbourhood norms, cannot be sold off separately. Such land may or may not contribute positively to value and may or may not accommodate future expansion of an existing or anticipated improvement. Source: The Appraisal Institute of Canada. The Appraisal of Real Estate. 2nd ed. Vancouver: UBC Real Estate Division, Sauder School of Business; 2002 | |
| Tax Sale | The sale of a taxpayer’s property to collect delinquent taxes from the proceeds of sale; conducted when the taxpayer has failed to redeem the property within the statutory period. Source: The Appraisal Institute. The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal. 6th Edition. Chicago: Appraisal Institute; 2015. | |
| Tax Year | The calendar year to which an assessment roll applies for the purposes of taxation as referred to in section 3(2) of the Assessment Act. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Taxable Value | Taxable value is the appraised value minus all applicable partial exemptions. Property taxes are levied on taxable value. Source: International Association of Assessing Officers. Glossary for Property Appraisal and Assessment. 2nd ed. Kansas City: International Association of Assessing Officers; 2013. | |
| Telecommunications | Includes land and improvements used or held for the purposes of, or for purposes ancillary to, the business of a telecommunications common carrier that operates a telephone system, data telecommunications network or cable television undertaking, but does not include land or improvements in respect of a telecommunications common carrier that is a radio or television broadcasting or rebroadcasting undertaking. Source: Assessment Act Regulation 1998. | |
| Tenancy in common/Tenant in common | A state of tenancy involving two or more persons owning undivided possessory interests that have arisen out of separate and distinct conveyances, any one of the tenants being free to create interest in his portion of the estate and the heirs or devisees acquiring the interest of any tenant who may die. Source: International Association of Assessing Officers. Glossary for Property Appraisal and Assessment. 2nd ed. Kansas City: International Association of Assessing Officers; 2013. 186 p. | |
| Tenant | One who holds or possesses real estate by any kind of right or title; commonly a person who occupies and uses the property of another under a lease. Source: The Appraisal Institute. The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal. 6th Edition. Chicago: Appraisal Institute; 2015. 449 p. | |
| Tenant Improvements | Extensive tenant improvements can influence contract rents or they may be built into the asking rents as a tenant improvement allowance. When capital expenditures not accounted for in the asking rent are made by the lessor (owner), reimbursement may be accomplished through marginally higher rent that amortizes the lessor’s expenditures over all or part of the lease period. If the lessee (tenant) makes capital expenditures, the lessor may reduce the lessee’s rent for all or part of the lease term as compensation for such tenant expenditures. In many retail environments, the rents vary directly with the level of build-out (e.g. definition of shell) provided to the tenant. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Tenant Inducement | May include cash payments (e.g. free rent), landlord payments for new fixturing and other tenant improvements, and tenant-specific building upgrades including custom signage. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Tenure | Means (a) any interest in Crown land that is granted or otherwise established under a prescribed instrument, or (b) a prescribed designation or other status that, under an enactment, is given to, conferred on, or made or otherwise established in relation to Crown land. Source: Land Act 1996. | |
| Timber | Trees, whether standing, fallen, living, dead, limbed, bucked or peeled. Source: Forest Act 1996. | |
| Travel trailer | A vehicle that is (a) capable of being towed on its own permanent wheels and undercarriage by a motor vehicle, (b) licensed, or able to be licensed, as a trailer under the Motor Vehicle Act for use on highway, and (c) not used as a principal residence. Source: Travel Manufactured Home Exemption Regulation 1988. | |
| Trespass | Trespass is an unlawful interference with one’s property; at common law, trespass to land is every unauthorized and direct breach of the boundaries of another’s land. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Undivided Interest; Undivided Right | An interest in a property that is not distinct from the interest or interests of one or more other persons as to the time during which the interest is possessory or as to the portion of the property to which the interest attaches, for example, the interest of a joint tenant or a tenant in common. Source: International Association of Assessing Officers. Glossary for Property Appraisal and Assessment. 2nd ed. Kansas City: International Association of Assessing Officers; 2013. 186 p. | |
| Unit of Accommodation | A unit that is rented or offered for rent as overnight accommodation for periods of less than 28 days for at least the prescribed percentage of the 12-month period ending June 30 of the year previous to the taxation year for which the assessment roll is completed; Source: Assessment Act 1996. | |
| Vested | When the right, interest or title to the legal estate is transferred back to the owner or to any other party. See Perpetuity Act 1996. Source: BC Assessment 2021. | |
| Water Lot | A legally defined area of land covered by water that may be either contiguous or attached to dry land, or which may be separated entirely from dry land and my be filled, partially filled, or not filled. Source: The Appraisal Institute of Canada. The Appraisal of Real Estate. 2nd ed. Vancouver: UBC Real Estate Division, Sauder School of Business; 2002 | |
