How to appeal my Edmonton property taxes? Your step-by-step guide
How to appeal your Edmonton property taxes…
Note of these important dates and deadlines regarding your Edmonton property taxes…
- July 1st to December 31st of 2017, is the date range that your property’s market value that is being estimated. Any changes to your property in this time, can be taken into consideration to affect the value.
- January of 2018 is when the estimated property tax assessments are mailed out to you for your home. You hopefully have already received this. If not, contact the City of Edmonton immediately and ask for the Assessment department at 780-496-9600.
- March 12th, 2018 is your deadline to appeal your property tax assessment.
- May 2018 is when the final property tax assessments are mailed out.
- June 30th, is the deadline in which you need to pay your property taxes in full, or choose a monthly payment plan.
Now that you have confirmed that the deadline hasn’t past. You can take steps to request your property taxes to be adjusted.
Step 1: Determine your future plans for my Edmonton home?
Visit our link at http://www.jasonpaul.ca/appeal-edmonton-property-taxes/ to help you determine what the best strategy is for you, and if you should appeal your Edmonton property taxes. Once you decide that you wish to proceed, please proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Identify why do you feel that your Edmonton property taxes are high
The following are property characteristics used by City of Edmonton assessors in evaluating and estimated value of your home:
- Size of lot
- Property Class: Single Family or Condo
- Building Type: Detached home, Attached home, Duplex, Half Duplex, 4-plex, Townhouse, Apartment High Rise, Apartment Low Rise, Mobile Home, Vacant Lot, or a Derelict Property (boarded up or ready to be torn down).
- Size of your home, usually in square feet
- Year that the property was built
- Basement development
- Parking: Stalls, Parking Pad, or Garage; including size, attached or detached
- Building condition
- Type and condition of roof
- Upgrades including but not limited to air conditions and fireplaces
- Community that the Property is in
- Geographic factors such as where the property is located and near to, including but not limited to parks, river valley, green space, roads, commercial developments, etc.
- Amenity access such as pools, gyms, and any other associated buildings or amenities
It is very important to take the above property characteristic into account when you are putting together your evidence for a complaint and/or appeal against your Edmonton property tax assessment. You will use these characteristics to compare your property to other comparable properties along with market data.
Step 3: Gather evidence from the following Edmonton property tax resources and tools to justify the property tax assessment value that you believe to be accurate
Property sale evidence from an Electronic Market Evaluation Report (EMER)
This is usually your best source of evidence, and provides the most amount of details including photos and all of the property characteristics (scroll up) that the City of Edmonton Assessors use in evaluating your estimated assessed property tax value. his is the easiest, least amount of work for you, and most accurate evidence that you can do in order to present the best case possible. The City of Edmonton Assessors have access to the same information, so this is your best chance to create a level playing field.
*Please message us from our Facebook page to request an EMER.
Alberta Land Title records
The Alberta Land Titles Spatial Information System gives pubic access to all Alberta land title information. In order to pull the land title, you need the LINC number or the legal description for the property. The land title can tell you who owns a property, when they bought it, what they possibly owe, along with other detailed information about the property.
If you don’t know the legal description to a property, you can use the City of Edmonton Maps tool at https://maps.edmonton.ca/.
City of Edmonton Assessment Maps Tool
This system provided by the City of Edmonton, allows public access to view the property tax details for the majority of all property in the City of Edmonton. Once you perform an “Address Lookup”, you will be provided with an abundance of information.
Under the “General” tab, you will find the following information:
- Address & postal code
- Legal description
- Area of the land in square meters
- Year the property was built
- Neighbourhood / Community
- Ward
- Community League
- Waster Collection
- Current Zoning of the land
- Current Bylaw applying to the land
- Proposed: applications, zoning, bylaws, and overlays
- Plan in Effect
Under the “Assessment” tab, you will find the following information:
- Address
- Account Number or Tax Roll Number
- Assessed Value
- Assessment Class
- Neighbourhood
- Garage
- GPS coordinates
As an example, I have pulled my brokerage’s REMAX Elite office address: 304 Windermere Road, Edmonton, AB.
The disadvantage of using Edmonton Maps is that it is still missing some of the most important information such as: a detailed property description, photos of the property, square footage, basement information with details of its development, upgrade information, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, details regarding parking, type of construction materials, type of foundation, amenity details, building condition, type of flooring, and other important evidence that you will most likely need.
*All of the preceding information is included in an Electronic Market Evaluation (EMER), please contact us by messaging us through our Facebook page to request more information.
Photos
You may want to take photos of your property to substantiate your complaint or appeal. These photos may include the current condition of your property as well as contrasting photos of other properties that you are comparing to. These photos in conjunction with evidence from an City of Edmonton Assessment Maps, Land Titles, and most importantly an EMER which provides everything all together, will present a the best case possible.
Appraiser
An industry professional such as a Property Appraiser may be hired to complete a market appraisal. This can be an expensive approach and be in the range of $300 to $1,000+ depending on the type of appraisal and details provided. This may not be a a justifiable expense to offset the adjustment in any property tax savings in the short-term.
City of Edmonton Reference Materials
https://www.edmonton.ca/residential_neighbourhoods/property_tax_assessment/reference-materials.aspx
https://edmonton.ca/assessment
Service Alberta
http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/1538
City of Edmonton Property Tax Package
Please message us on our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/JasonPaulGroup/ for a free City of Edmonton Property Tax Information Package. Will post a quick download link shortly.
Step 4: Make your complaint or file your appeal to the City of Edmonton
Now that you have collected all of your evidence substantiating that your estimated Edmonton property tax assessment is inaccurate. It is time to present your evidence to your City Assessor.
You may email everything to: assessment@edmonton.ca or call 311 (780-442-5311)
For all communication, it is advisable to keep all auto-responses from the City of Edmonton’s email system, correspondence, and who you speak to. Send yourself an email every time noting the date, time, and who you spoke to at the City of Edmonton. This is good practise to have in case there are any delays with the City of Edmonton Tax Assessment Department.
As the deadline of March 12th, 2018 is quickly approaching, you may want to do all of the above to ensure a quick response from the City of Edmonton Tax Assessment department.
If, your Assessor agrees with you, be sure to ask for a response in writing via email, and they should be able to provide that to you within a short time.
If, your Assessor, does not agree with you, your next step is to file an appeal online and pay the $50.00 appeal fee.
*You may also hire our team at the Jason Paul Real Estate Group with a simple message or phone call and we can take care of the entire process for you. Please call us at 780-487-4847 or message us on our Facebook page.
Published and copyrighted by:
Jason Paul, Realtor, CRES, SRS, ABR
REMAX Elite, 304 Windermere Road, Edmonton, AB.
TOP 5% FOR MLS Sales | RE/MAX Hall of Fame 2012
Seller Representative Specialist (SRS), Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR), & Commercial Real Estate Specialist (CRES)
Office: 780-487-4847