For Journalists is where to start if you are writing about BC property assessments: how values are set, where they go wrong, what happens when homeowners appeal and the records behind every figure.
What is the story?
Every January, BC Assessment sends a value to every property owner in the province, and that value decides how the property tax bill is split. It values every home at once, using software and sales, and the system is built to get the average right. It is not built to get every home right.
When I compared every single family home sold on Vancouver Island in 2025 with its 2026 assessment, BC Assessment's value matched the sale price on just 63 of 7,079, less than 1%. 2,805 homes, nearly 40%, were assessed above what they sold for.1 Homeowners who challenge their values can win, but the system makes it hard. In the appeals I have helped with, the Property Assessment Appeal Board lowered the value in 30 of the 33 decisions it made, 91%.2
The A to Z
How a BC Assessment is set, and how a homeowner challenges it
- July 1
The valuation date
Every 2027 assessment is BC Assessment's estimate of what the property was worth on July 1, 2026.
- Through the fall
Values are set in bulk
BC Assessment values every property at once from sales and the details it has on file. A person inside BC Assessment told me the software trends values toward a 97% assessment to sale ratio, and staff only look at sales more than 25% away from that target.3 A home can miss by less than that and nobody looks.
- Early January
The notice arrives
Most owners glance at the number and move on. Few ask for the property record card that shows what their value is based on.
- By February 1, 2027
The Property Assessment Review Panel
The first place a homeowner can challenge a value. Hearings are often only minutes long, and the panel can confirm a value without working through the evidence.4
- By April 30, 2027
The Property Assessment Appeal Board
An independent tribunal that hears the appeal from scratch. This is where the evidence is weighed, and where most of the homeowners I have helped won.2
- Spring and summer
The tax bill
Local governments set tax rates against the whole roll. When one property is assessed too high, its owner pays more than their share. When one is assessed too low, everyone else makes up the difference.
Story ideas
Stories worth telling
Local
How accurate are the values in your town?
The 2026 audit breaks every sale down by regional district and by each of 73 tax jurisdictions on the Island, so every community has its own numbers.1
See the audits by jurisdiction
Process
Why the first hearing so often says no
In Youbou, the Review Panel heard 1 of 23 complaints and confirmed all 23. A year later, 89% were lowered at the Appeal Board, 25 of 28.4
See the Youbou Appeal Group
Accountability
What BC Assessment conceded in writing
In the Youbou appeals, BC Assessment recommended or agreed to a lower value 75% of the time, 21 of 28. Its own figures would have taken $3.34 million off. The Board took off $11.03 million.5
See the appeal record
Inside BC Assessment
The whistleblower
A person inside BC Assessment explained, on a recorded call, how the software sets values and which homes staff actually look at.3
See the Whistleblower Files
Fairness
Homeowners and commercial owners
Large commercial owners appeal with professional agents. Homeowners appeal alone. Who carries the cost when a property is underassessed?6
See The Research
Records
What government said behind the scenes
Records released under freedom of information by BC Assessment and the Ministry of Finance, with file and page numbers for every quote.7
See the FOI requestsFact sheet
Key figures you can quote, with their sources
7,079
Single family homes sold on Vancouver Island in 2025, compared with their 2026 assessed values across 7 regional districts and 73 tax jurisdictions.1
63
Of those homes, less than 1%, were assessed at exactly what they sold for. 4,211 (nearly 60%) were assessed below their sale price and 2,805 (nearly 40%) above.1
$946,525
More in property tax paid in one year by the owners of the 2,805 homes assessed above their sale price.1
91%
Of Appeal Board decisions on appeals I helped with lowered the value, 30 of 33. Every file number is public.2
$22.6M+
In assessment reductions for the 40 homeowners I have helped, with more than $110,000 in property tax refunds and credits.2
89%
Of Youbou appeals lowered at the Appeal Board, 25 of 28, after the Review Panel confirmed all 23 complaints in front of it.4
32
News stories about this work so far, run more than 400 times across BC, including the front page of the Times Colonist.8
Plain language
The terms you will run into, explained
Actual market value
BC Assessment's estimate of what a property would have sold for on July 1 of the year before the notice. A 2027 notice is a value as of July 1, 2026.
The roll
The full list of assessed values for a year. Local governments set tax rates against the whole roll, so one value that is too high shifts tax onto that owner.
Assessment to sale ratio
The assessed value divided by the sale price. 100% means the assessment matched the sale; above 100% means it was assessed higher than it sold for.
Property record card
BC Assessment's file on a property: land and building size, features and how the value was worked out. Owners can request it, and errors on it are a common reason values are wrong.
Review Panel
The first level of appeal, run by the Ministry of Finance. Free to file by the deadline, normally January 31. Hearings are often minutes long.
Appeal Board
The Property Assessment Appeal Board, an independent tribunal. A $30 fee, an April 30 deadline, and a fresh hearing of the evidence.
Joint recommendation
A settlement: the homeowner and BC Assessment agree on a lower value and the Appeal Board approves it.
Holding appeal
An appeal filed for the next year while the earlier year is still being decided, to keep the owner's right to challenge it.
Appraisal tolerance
The Appeal Board treats a value within 5% of market value as reasonable, so a homeowner generally needs to show more than 5% to win.
About me
Who is behind this site
I am Jason Anson, a real estate agent on Vancouver Island. I started helping homeowners in 2023, when my own community of Youbou was hit with some of the highest assessment increases on the Island. I am not a lawyer or an appraiser. I help homeowners prepare their own appeals, the homeowners remain the appellants, and the results are decided by the Review Panel and the Appeal Board, independent of me.
Past coverage is collected on News Features, and every result is on my BC Assessment Appeal Record.
What the homeowners said
A homeowner who spoke to reporters. Here is what he said.
John Duggan owns an off grid waterfront cabin in Youbou. When his value jumped again, he wrote to the Premier, and he spoke to the Cowichan Valley Citizen on his own.9 In this clip, he describes opening his 2024 notice.
Across 3 roll years, his assessments came down $1,308,000.9
"I thought for sure it had to be a mistake."
John Duggan, Youbou, watch on YouTube
Reduced $1,308,000 over 3 years, saving approximately $6,540 in property tax.
Appeal Nos. 2024-04-00009 and 2025-04-00051, and the 2026 Property Assessment Review Panel
What the news reported
A homeowner the papers wrote about. Here is what she told the reporter.
Cowichan Valley Citizen, August 4, 2023
Honeymoon Bay property owner says assessment on dilapidated home way too high
"It's a joke, and I feel like I'm being forced off my land."
Shelley Robinson, a Honeymoon Bay waterfront homeowner on a limited income, quoted in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, August 4, 2023.10
Her story was republished across BC, including by Today in BC under the headline "Fixed-income B.C. senior 'bullied' by $12,000 tax bill for waterlogged home." Stories like hers start with one value, one notice and one owner willing to talk. The full list of coverage is on News Features.
Why it matters to your readers
Every homeowner in BC gets a value. Very few check it.
On Vancouver Island alone, the 2,805 homes assessed above their sale price, nearly 40% of those sold, paid $946,525 more in property tax than their fair share in one year.1 Yet in 2023, BC Assessment told me only 844 single family homeowners complained in the whole province.11 That same year, 48% of the new appeals at the Appeal Board were commercial and industrial properties, most with professional agents.6
The window to act is short and comes every year: notices in early January, a February 1 deadline. A story in January can save a reader hundreds of dollars.
What the Ministry of Finance said
When a reporter asked BC Assessment about Youbou, government communications asked to see the answer first.
"I understand that Robert Barron has reached out to you for comment on the assessors going to Youbou? Can you share the media request and suggested response with us before it goes out?"
A Government Communications and Public Engagement officer, in an email to BC Assessment, copied to Ministry of Finance staff, June 28, 2023. Released to me under freedom of information.12
How one media request was handled
June 27, 2023
a Cowichan Valley Citizen reporter asked BC Assessment about its assessors going to Youbou
June 28, 2023
government communications asked to see the request and the suggested response first
7 people
copied, across BC Assessment, government communications and the Ministry of Finance
FOI
is how I found out
For a story, this matters. BC Assessment sets the values, the Ministry of Finance runs the Review Panel that hears the first complaint, and the Appeal Board is a separate tribunal. A statement from any one of them may already have been read by the others. The records show what was said before the answer went out.
What BC Assessment said
Ask BC Assessment about an appeal and this is the answer. Here is how to get past it.
"Out of respect for the formal property assessment appeal process and the need to maintain integrity of the process, BC Assessment cannot comment publicly on active appeals."
BC Assessment's Deputy Assessor for residential Vancouver Island, in an email to a Cowichan Valley Citizen reporter, January 31, 2025. Released to me under freedom of information.13
What happened to that reporter's question
BC Assessment will not discuss an appeal while it is open. That does not stop a story. Ask about the system instead: how many complaints were filed in your area, how many were reduced, and how values are checked against sales. Appeal Board decisions are public once they are made, and every quote on this site gives the FOI file and page so you can request the same records.
What the BC Assessment whistleblower said
The whistleblower said BC Assessment answers the question you ask, not the one you should ask.
"I'm trying to give you a big picture of how we operate so that you know the questions to ask to get the right answers. Because they will tell you what they want you to know and not necessarily what you should know."
The BC Assessment whistleblower, recorded telephone call, May 2023.14
The questions worth asking, and what the numbers show
Ask BC Assessment about accuracy and the answer will usually be a median: the roll as a whole lands close to its target. That can be true while thousands of individual homes miss. The better questions are how many homes are more than 5% off, which way they miss, and who pays for it. More of what he said is on The BC Assessment Whistleblower Files.
Common questions
For reporters
Can I name the homeowners?
The homeowners on my appeal record are listed by appellant number, never by name or address, for privacy. Some have spoken to reporters on their own, and in those cases I have named them publicly. Please ask them directly before naming anyone.
Why do BC Assessment's numbers and mine sometimes differ?
BC Assessment usually reports on the roll as a whole, such as a median ratio or the share of owners who did not appeal. I report on individual homes: each sale against its own assessed value, and each appeal by its file number. Both can be accurate at the same time. A roll can hit its target on average while thousands of homes miss, so ask which one a number describes.
Where do the figures in the audit come from?
Every figure comes from a 2025 arm's length sale anyone can look up, compared with the 2026 assessed value of the same home.
Can I get the freedom of information records myself?
Yes. Every quote on this site gives the FOI file and page number, so you can request the same records from BC Assessment or the Ministry of Finance.
A note on the record
Everything on this site happened between 2023 and 2026, under the previous provincial government, the local councils and regional boards in office before the October 17, 2026 local elections, and the people who held these roles at the time. The record is now complete. A new provincial government and new local councils are now in office with a fresh start, and I invite the Premier, the Minister of Finance, the BC Assessment board and every mayor, council and regional board to read it and learn from it. This is not a complaint about them. It is what happened.
What a new government could do
- Ask the Auditor General for a performance audit of whether the roll is accurate and fair home by home, not only on average.
- Publish appeal results every year: how many homeowners appeal, at each level, and how often they win.
- Create an independent place to complain about how BC Assessment and the Review Panel treat people.
- Test every new roll against the year's sales and publish, for each community, how many homes were assessed within 5% of what they sold for.
Writing about BC property taxes? Start with a real home.
Enter any address and see how its BC Assessment compares to what homes like it actually sold for.
Check a PropertySources
- My Vancouver Island Tax Roll Audit 2026: 7,079 arm's length single family sales in 2025 compared with their 2026 assessed values, across 7 regional districts and 73 tax jurisdictions.
- My BC Assessment Appeal Record: every result by appellant number, with the Property Assessment Appeal Board file number for each decision.
- The BC Assessment whistleblower, recorded telephone call, May 2023; BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-10, pages 227 to 228 (May 11, 2023).
- Property Assessment Review Panel, group hearing for the Youbou waterfront complaints, February 27, 2023, recording; Property Assessment Appeal Board decisions on files 2023-04-00105 to 2023-04-00133.
- BC Assessment written submissions to the Property Assessment Appeal Board for appeals 2023-04-00105 to 2023-04-00133, August 21 to October 10, 2023, the Board's decisions and orders, and the joint recommendations approved by the Board for the 3 settled appeals.
- Property Assessment Appeal Board, annual report, 2023.
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-10, released July 10, 2025; Ministry of Finance, FOI file FIN-2025-52395, released May 29, 2026.
- My News Features page; Times Colonist, February 10, 2024.
- Cowichan Valley Citizen, Robert Barron, January 20, 2026, "Youbou property owner appeals to premier over house assessment"; Property Assessment Appeal Board, Appeal Nos. 2024-04-00009 and 2025-04-00051; 2026 Property Assessment Review Panel decision. Listed as A-36 on my BC Assessment Appeal Record.
- Cowichan Valley Citizen, Robert Barron, "Honeymoon Bay property owner says assessment on dilapidated home way too high," August 4, 2023, as republished by the Lake Cowichan Gazette. Read the article
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2024-29, letter of October 7, 2024: single family complaint counts for 2023 and 2024, province wide.
- Ministry of Finance, FOI file FIN-2025-52395, page 816: email from Government Communications and Public Engagement to BC Assessment, "RE: BC Assessment Youbou Appeal info," June 28, 2023, and the BC Assessment email of June 27, 2023 below it.
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-10, pages 225 to 226 (Bates 0274 to 0275): emails between BC Assessment's Deputy Assessor and Robert Barron, Cowichan Valley Citizen, "Jason Anson again," January 31, 2025.
- The BC Assessment whistleblower, recorded telephone call with me, May 2023; transcript sent to the Property Assessment Appeal Board on May 11, 2023, and released in Ministry of Finance FOI file FIN-2025-52395.
My Record: January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2026
$22.6M+
cut from the values BC Assessment put on homeowners' properties
My 3 largest reductions for a homeowner: $2,063,000, $1,954,000 and $1,438,000
$110K+
in estimated property tax refunds and credits for homeowners
My 3 largest estimated refunds or credits for a homeowner: $10,315, $9,770 and $7,190
40
homeowners I helped appeal their BC Assessment
100% won a reduction. The average homeowner had approximately $566,000 taken off their value and an estimated $2,800 back in property tax.
63
appeals won, out of the 65 those homeowners took to a decision
97% won, at BC Assessment, the Review Panel and the Appeal Board
91%
of written Appeal Board decisions, made by an independent adjudicator, lowered the value
30 of the 33 that went that far
7,079
Vancouver Island home sales I checked against their BC Assessment
Less than 1% were assessed at what they sold for, and 40% were assessed above it
32
news stories about the appeals I helped with
Run more than 400 times in 68 news outlets across BC
23
freedom of information requests to BC Assessment for its records
$11,047.06 in fees BC Assessment estimated to release them. I paid $30 in total, after fee waiver requests on public interest and hardship grounds.
Are You Overassessed?
When BC Assessment gets your home's value wrong, I prove what it is actually worth using real sales of similar homes, so you don't pay more property tax than your fair share.
Jason Anson
I am not a lawyer or an appraiser, and nothing on this site should be considered legal or tax advice. When I help you, you are still the appellant and you file your own appeal. Every result depends on the evidence for that property, and the decision belongs to the Property Assessment Review Panel or the Property Assessment Appeal Board, not to me. My past results do not predict yours, and I cannot guarantee any outcome.
Helping homeowners with property assessment appeals is not a licensed activity in the province of British Columbia. It is not regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) or the Real Estate Services Act, and it is not considered a real estate service.
I am also a licensed real estate agent with eXp Realty. That work gives me my experience in valuation and market movement, which is the evidence of market value the Review Panel and the Appeal Board weigh. This site and my appeal work are completely separate from eXp Realty. They are not affiliated with, endorsed by or provided through my brokerage, and the views here are my own, not eXp Realty's.
What I write about BC Assessment, the Property Assessment Review Panel, the Property Assessment Appeal Board, the Minister and Ministry of Finance, and the other public offices on this site is my own opinion, and I consider it fair comment on a matter of public interest. My opinions are my honest views, marked as my view, and based on facts anyone can check: Appeal Board decisions, public records and records released under freedom of information. Quotes from documents and news stories are the words of the people quoted. If anything here is inaccurate, let me know and I will correct it.