The Accurate Assessment Group presented a four per cent residential property tax assessment increase in 2019 at the Committee of the Whole Meeting on May 12.
Assessment Specialist, Bob Daudelin also presented a non-residential increase of three per cent, a linear assessment increase of one per cent, and a decrease of assessments of farmland.
“Residential properties are typically assessed using the direct sales comparison approach. We look at the sales of comparable properties, and then we establish a value on the property using the method,” Daudelin said.
“We use a mass appraisal to value all market value-driven properties within the city limits,” he said.
Common data collected in the mass appraisals include the location, lot size, age, and condition.
“Every property is reassessed annually. That doesn’t mean that every property is actually inspected annually, it means it’s revaluated,” Daudelin said.
“Based on market conditions, the value of a property will change from year to year,” he said.
Properties are inspected over five years as the City of Chestermere is broken down into five geographic areas, and one area is re-inspected every year.
The property inspections include development permits, progressive properties, and global re-inspections.
For any assessment inquiries, the Accurate Assessment Group’s first objective is to have the property owners contact the municipality, and provide all requested information to the assessor, to ensure the information is correct.
If after all information is gathered and reviewed, and the property owner is unsatisfied with the assessment, a formal assessment complaint can be filed.
In 2020, the golf course area and south will be re-inspected, but in a different way than in the past.
“There will be no interior inspections of homes this year, we do them when needed. Virtually, no on-site inspections will happen at least in the short term,” Daudelin said.
“We will be relying on contact via phone and email, visual inspections from the street only, use of residential requests for information, photos, and videos. It’s not ideal, but it works, and it gets us through,” he said.
Adding, “There will be instances where we can inspect and go on-site, such as vacant land, or possibly new construction if there is a house in lock up, and we will be taking very safe precautions.”
