The Freedom of Information Requests on this page are mine, to BC Assessment and the Ministry of Finance: what I asked for, what it cost, what came back and what is still blacked out.
What did freedom of information show about BC Assessment?
What I could never have known from the outside. The released records show BC Assessment's Assessor describing its recommendations on my appeals to its Vice President and Chief Executive Officer in a way its own written submissions did not support. That email is on my BC Assessment Appeal Record.1 They show the Ministry of Finance briefing the Minister on me for 16 months with an outdated number.2 They show BC Assessment staff flagging a homeowner's request for the record on their own home because I was helping with the appeal.3
Getting there took 23 requests to BC Assessment, $11,047.06 in fee estimates, a long series of fee appeals and a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner. In the end I paid $30.4
23
freedom of information requests to BC Assessment
$11,047.06
in BC Assessment fee estimates4
$30
what I actually paid, on 1 request
2,389
pages released: 1,305 from BC Assessment and 1,084 from the Ministry of Finance
File by file
The main releases, and what each one showed
BC Assessment, file 2025-10
BC Assessment's own emails about the Youbou appeals
What came back
Released July 10, 2025: 263 records, 62 of them withheld in full.5
What it showed
The Assessor's email about my appeals to the Vice President and Chief Executive Officer. BC Assessment's media staff planning to ask the Review Panel Administrator what to tell a reporter. My complaint passed back and forth between them marked "FYI ~as discussed".1
Ministry of Finance, file FIN-2025-52395
What the Ministry told the Minister about me
What came back
Released May 28 and 29, 2026: 1,084 pages, 205 records, 57 with parts blacked out. It came 364 days after my request, and only after I complained to the Commissioner.6
What it showed
16 months of Issue Notes with the outdated $10.5 million figure, the Review Panel Administrator drafting the replies to complaints about his own office, and his worry that answering my questions "may just provide fuel to the fire."2 More on The Minister of Finance.
BC Assessment, file 2025-34
The Leger survey of homeowners who appealed
What came back
Response of March 25, 2026: pages 7 to 142 blacked out. The only request I paid for, $30.7
What it showed
BC Assessment asked homeowners whether it is fair and accurate, and would not release what they said. It is now going to a written inquiry before the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
BC Assessment, file 2024-29
How many homeowners appeal
What came back
Letter of October 7, 2024.8
What it showed
Single family complaints province wide: 844 in 2023 and 602 in 2024. BC Assessment does not publish that number.
Every file, by topic
What BC Assessment, the Ministry and the Appeal Board released, file by file
Each group below is a set of records I requested from BC Assessment, the Ministry of Finance or the Property Assessment Appeal Board. The stories already published are linked, and the rest are marked coming.
- The Leger homeowner survey8
- The 99% fair and accurate claim8
- Appeal numbers and outcomes14
- The ValueBC software switch12
- BC Assessment's records about my appeals15
- BC Assessment's response to the Youbou Appeal Group11
- Time adjustments and the home price index16
- Inspection manuals and old Property Record Cards6
- Sales, realtors and waterfront4
- Andy Ross's records14
- The fee fight4
- The Ministry of Finance records13
- The Appeal Board records9
BC Assessment file 2025-34At inquiry
8 articlesThe Leger homeowner survey
What BC Assessment asked the homeowners who appealed in 2025, and the fight to see their answers. The full story is on the Information and Privacy Commissioner page.
- Why is BC Assessment withholding what homeowners said in its own survey?
- Can a survey of the public be withheld as advice? What section 13 of the Act says
- The survey went out April 14, 2025. The 99% press release went out April 16
- BC Assessment has surveyed appellants before: the 2022 Review Panel survey
- The $250 prize email that looked like phishing
- From $233.47 to $60 to $30: the fee to see a survey of homeowners
- After the Commissioner's review, 1 page released and 56 more withheld
- What happens next at the written inquiry
BC Assessment file 2025-23Commissioner review
8 articlesThe 99% fair and accurate claim
What is behind BC Assessment's yearly statement that 99% of owners accept their assessments as fair and accurate.
- What does 99% accepted as fair and accurate actually measure?
- What BC Assessment produced to support the 99% claim
- Errors the assessor finds and fixes that are not counted as appeals
- The lowest appeal rate in years, the same year Appeal Board appeals rose 16%
- Review Panel appeals in BC, 2019 to 2025
- Is there a study behind easy access and transparency?
- Was the press release written before the appeal count was final?
- 211 days and a deemed refusal review to receive 2 pages
BC Assessment files 2024-29 and 2025-22
14 articles, 2 liveAppeal numbers and outcomes
How many homeowners appeal, by property type, and how often they win a reduction.
- How many single family dwellings are there in British Columbia?
- Who appeals their BC Assessment more, businesses or homeowners?
- How many single family homeowners file with the Review Panel each year?
- What are a homeowner's odds of a reduction at the Review Panel?
- How often does the Review Panel confirm the value?
- What does bypassed mean, when BC Assessment lowers your value before the hearing?
- Why did single family complaints fall from 5,902 in 2022 to 2,122 in 2025?
- Vacant residential lots at the Review Panel
- Acreage homes of 2 acres or more at the Review Panel
- Homes with a suite at the Review Panel
- Cabins and seasonal dwellings at the Review Panel
- Manufactured homes at the Review Panel
- How many homeowners withdraw or miss the January 31 deadline?
- Residential properties are 28% of all Review Panel complaints
BC Assessment file 2023-11
12 articlesThe ValueBC software switch
When BC Assessment replaced its old valuation system, and what changed on the roll.
- Did BC Assessment's new software change my assessment?
- 33,030 properties changed value by 10% or more
- How many Vancouver Island properties changed value because of the software?
- What are iasWorld and Tyler Technologies, and what replaced ValueBC?
- Do not match the old value: the instruction to staff
- Why did my garage or outbuilding value change?
- Why did my land value change?
- Were the sales behind the 2023 roll processed properly?
- Was every flagged property reviewed?
- What happened to the old property records?
- Millions of data points were altered
- How to find out whether your property was one of the 33,030
BC Assessment file 2025-10
15 articlesBC Assessment's records about my appeals
What BC Assessment wrote internally while I helped Youbou homeowners appeal.
- Do not release Property Record Cards
- Not to try to defend the roll values at all: the outside lawyer's instructions
- 30 minutes per property at the Review Panel
- We need to move away from HPI
- Introducing more evidence than is necessary
- Does BC Assessment code waterfront?
- Verbal recommendations at the Review Panel are not recorded
- No oversight or accountability, then key messages from the Ministry
- How BC Assessment followed my appeals and posts
- Where the whistleblower transcript went
- The group appeals remain the only ones not inspected
- Only the Appeal Board can change a value under appeal
- Youbou waterfront up 28%
- The informal call that was cancelled
- Why was the recommendation made so late?
BC Assessment file 2025-11
11 articlesBC Assessment's response to the Youbou Appeal Group
The reassessment project BC Assessment launched after 30 Youbou homeowners appealed.
- A mass appeal of 30 properties necessitates a full reassessment
- Improved corporate credibility: the project's stated outcome
- Exterior inspections only: how the peninsula was inspected
- The inspector script: do not get into discussing value
- Flooding and the Cowichan Lake floodplain
- A median assessment to list ratio of 0.71
- Positioning for the Review Panel and the Appeal Board in 2024
- Roll statistics within targets, excluding time adjustments
- Consistent messaging for Cowichan lakefront owners
- 15 pages withheld as solicitor client privilege
- $5,863.58 for a homeowner group's own records
BC Assessment files 2023-49 and 2023-56
16 articlesTime adjustments and the home price index
How BC Assessment moves sale prices to July 1, and what its own training said about it.
- How does BC Assessment time adjust sales to July 1?
- BC Assessment's time adjustment against the MLS Home Price Index
- BC Assessment has not implemented a policy on time adjustments
- We don't know the recipe: BC Assessment's trainers on the home price index
- Our values then looked 15% too low
- Should BC Assessment publish its time adjustments?
- Why waterfront and acreage homes are not typical properties
- Limit comps to 3: BC Assessment's advice to its own staff
- A wide range of value provides a justification for reduction
- What makes a homeowner's Appeal Board submission strong?
- Always address time adjustments
- Equity: when sale ratios can lower your value
- Errors on sale dates have resulted in reductions
- Why BC Assessment loses appeals
- Adjustments without sales are an unsupported opinion
- Can a homeowner see BC Assessment's time adjustment dashboard?
BC Assessment files 2023-13 and 2023-08Commissioner complaints, 2023
6 articlesInspection manuals and old Property Record Cards
What inspectors are told to do, and the records BC Assessment says are gone.
- What BC Assessment's inspectors are told to do
- The manuals arrived after the inspections ended
- The duty to assist complaint to the Commissioner
- Your rights when BC Assessment inspects your home
- Can you get your old Property Record Card?
- ValueBC shut down August 31, 2022: what went with it
BC Assessment file 2025-14
4 articlesSales, realtors and waterfront
How BC Assessment checks a sale, and how it decides what counts as waterfront.
- Does BC Assessment contact the listing realtor about your sale?
- Not true waterfront: how BC Assessment decides from lot lines
- Every sale time adjusted to July 1: the sales review policy
- The sales audit letter and questionnaire
BC Assessment files 2025-17 and 2025-36
14 articlesAndy Ross's records
The records an 80 year old Youbou homeowner requested about his own appeals.
- Charged as a commercial applicant for his own records
- 182 feet against 100 feet: the water frontage
- The Appeal Board relied on the owner's own Land Title measurements
- Roll errors likely would not have been discovered without these appeals
- 105 properties physically reviewed because of the appeals
- What BC Assessment put on one home
- $30,000 resolving a $3,000 appeal
- Why the old Property Record Cards are gone
- The stated case to the BC Supreme Court
- Who a homeowner may bring to an Appeal Board meeting
- The comparable sale BC Assessment said it did not consider
- How one Appeal Board decision was applied to other properties
- Why was there a jurisdictional exception in a Youbou appeal brief?
- Does CUSPAP apply to BC Assessment at the Appeal Board?
BC Assessment files 2025-16, 2025-18 and 2025-19
4 articlesThe fee fight
$11,047.06 in fee estimates on homeowners' requests, and how they came down.
- Why does BC Assessment call homeowners commercial applicants?
- 2 requests abandoned after fee waivers were denied
- How to ask for a fee waiver, and what worked
- The Appeal Board waived all fees
Ministry of Finance file FIN-2025-52395Complaint substantiated
13 articlesThe Ministry of Finance records
What the Minister was told about me and the Youbou appeals.
- What the Minister was told about me: the Issue Notes
- The Review Panel administrator helped write those notes
- My complaint went to BC Assessment marked FYI
- Who drew up the Review Panel schedule?
- 11.5 hours booked, 1.5 used
- Might fuel the fire
- Approximately 10 Review Panel appointees used to work for BC Assessment
- How many letters have we received from him?
- I googled him
- Who oversees BC Assessment?
- The process is working, against 37 of 40
- Wasn't quite as successful as he made out
- It has run its course
Property Assessment Appeal Board file 2026-02-02
9 articlesThe Appeal Board records
What the Property Assessment Appeal Board wrote while the Youbou appeals were before it.
- The Appeal Board's first email about me
- The Registrar took over all Youbou appeals
- Seems strange for residential: BC Assessment hires King's Counsel
- Counsel came in May 25 and left June 8
- Managing self represented owners together
- Minimize the opportunities for politicization
- Do not engage: how the Board handled my press release
- The single family numbers the Board pulled
- No supervisory responsibility for BC Assessment
What the news reported
When BC Assessment would not say how often appeals succeed, I filed a complaint. Here is what I told the paper.
Today in BC, January 16, 2025
Realtor files complaint over BC Assessment's failure to provide appeal information
"Instead of straightforward answers, I faced delays, roadblocks, and an unreasonable fee [from BCA]." ... "People deserve to know how often appeals succeed."
Jason Anson, quoted by Today in BC, January 16, 2025.9
The story ran across BC. Every story about these appeals, and everywhere it ran, is on News Features.
What the Ministry of Finance said
Before my first request to the Review Panel office, I asked a simple question: how often do homeowners win?
"I can tell you that my office does not have any records that would help determine resolution rates."
The Review Panel Administrator, Ministry of Finance, in an email to me, July 8, 2024, after I asked how to make a freedom of information request to the Review Panel. Released to me under freedom of information.10
BC Assessment gave me the number of single family complaints, 844 in 2023 and 602 in 2024.8 No office would tell me how many of them won. That is the question the requests on this page set out to answer.
The cost of asking
$11,047.06 to see records about my own appeals. I paid $30.
What came back, and what did not
62 of 263
BC Assessment records withheld in full, 24%
57 of 205
Ministry of Finance records with parts blacked out, 28%
136
pages of the homeowner survey blacked out
364
days for the Ministry of Finance to release its records
In my view, fee estimates that size stop most homeowners before they start. I fought them because the records were about appeals I had worked on, and because I thought the public deserved to see them. On June 1, 2026, the Commissioner's office found my deemed refusal complaint against the Ministry of Finance substantiated.6
What BC Assessment said
The records about your home exist. When a Youbou homeowner asked for theirs, BC Assessment noted who was helping.
"...it is one the properties listed in 29 appeals that are being represented by an agent, Mr. Jason Anson."
A BC Assessment Information Technician, in an internal email forwarding a homeowner's freedom of information request for the property record card on a Youbou home, May 2023. Released to me under freedom of information.3
The reply from a BC Assessment Senior Appraiser: "Do not release any documentation until I have reviewed this matter."
You do not need to fight 23 requests to start. The most useful record for most homeowners is the one BC Assessment keeps on your own home: the property record card, including internal notes most homeowners may not know exist. That is where size, age, condition and other errors show up.
What this means for you: check what BC Assessment has on file before you appeal. My free guide walks through it on property record cards. Every release I have is part of the evidence.
What the BC Assessment whistleblower said
The whistleblower told the homeowners to ask for their file.
"You ask as a property owner you are entitled to a copy of your file that BC Assessment has. Whatever BC Assessment has on your file, you are entitled to a copy. But you have to request it and that is called a Property Record Card."
The BC Assessment whistleblower, recorded telephone call, May 2023.11
Common questions
Freedom of information and BC Assessment
Is BC Assessment covered by freedom of information?
Yes. BC Assessment is a public body, and anyone can ask it for records. My requests to it are listed on this page.
How do I get the records BC Assessment keeps on my home?
Ask BC Assessment for the property record card on your home, including internal notes. My free guide on property record cards shows how to request the right one.
What if BC Assessment charges a fee?
You can ask for a fee waiver, and you can ask the Information and Privacy Commissioner to review the fee. On my 23 requests, the estimates came to $11,047.06, and I paid $30.4
What if my records come back blacked out or late?
You can complain to the Information and Privacy Commissioner. My complaint against the Ministry of Finance for not answering on time was found substantiated.6
Who is really here to help
Start with the record on your own home
The records I fought for show how the system treats homeowners. Your own appeal still comes down to your own home and real sales near you. Every homeowner I personally helped who saw their appeal through won a reduction, and every result is on my BC Assessment Appeal Record. If you want me in your corner, here is how I can help with your appeal.
BC Assessment Check
A 1 hour one on one call where I go through the sold comparables in your neighbourhood with you and I tell you plainly whether you have an appeal.
Book a BC Assessment CheckProperty record cards
My free step by step guide to getting the record BC Assessment keeps on your home, including the internal notes most homeowners may not know exist.
Get Your Property Record CardDIY Appeal Guides
The same templates and steps behind my appeal record, so you can file and argue your own appeal with real evidence.
See the DIY Appeal GuidesA note on the record
These records were written between 2023 and 2026, by the people in these roles under the previous government. They are here so the new government can see what its predecessors saw.
What a new government could do: Make a homeowner's own appeal records free and quick to get, without fee estimates.
BC Assessment keeps a record on your home. Have you checked it?
Start with your address and see how your BC Assessment compares to what homes like yours actually sold for.
Check My PropertySources
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-10, page 427 (Bates 0485): email from the Assessor, Vancouver Island Region, to the Vice President, Assessment, copied to the Chief Executive Officer, November 10, 2023; pages 621 to 627 (May 10, 2023), 903 to 906 (May 18, 2023) and 134 to 135 (June 12, 2023).
- Ministry of Finance, FOI file FIN-2025-52395: Issue Notes for the Minister of Finance dated March 6, 2024 (pages 684 to 686), May 16, 2024 (pages 940 to 941) and August 16, 2024 (pages 955 to 957); the Review Panel Administrator's email of May 6, 2025 (pages 1025 to 1026).
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-10, pages 896 to 897: internal emails on a freedom of information request for the property record card on a Youbou home, May 15, 2023.
- BC Assessment fee estimate letters, 2024 to 2025, on FOI files from me and another homeowner; my fee waiver requests and appeals on 23 freedom of information requests, and the $30 paid on file 2025-34, the Leger survey.
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-10, released July 10, 2025: 263 records, 62 withheld in full under sections 13, 14, 17 and 22.
- Ministry of Finance, FOI file FIN-2025-52395, released May 28 and 29, 2026: 1,084 pages, 205 records, 57 with parts withheld under sections 13, 14, 15, 17 and 22; Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, file INV-F-26-01608, June 1, 2026: deemed refusal complaint substantiated.
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2025-34, response of March 25, 2026: pages 7 to 105 withheld under section 13(1) and pages 106 to 142 under sections 13(1) and 22(1).
- BC Assessment, FOI file 2024-29, letter of October 7, 2024: single family complaint counts for 2023 and 2024, province wide.
- Today in BC, Robert Barron, "Realtor files complaint over BC Assessment's failure to provide appeal information," January 16, 2025; as republished by the Castlegar News. Read the article
- Ministry of Finance, FOI file FIN-2025-52395, pages 943 to 944: email from the Review Panel Administrator to me, July 8, 2024.
- 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.