The Editor,
I live in Coquitlam and have been subjected to net property tax increases totalling 15.7% over the last two years, above the 12.8% assessed value increase of the same period of time, for exactly the same house.
The net tax increase just last year was $330.34. This year, my home’s assessed value was another 18.6% higher, so this “2.64%” tax increase is most likely in all reality a figment of our council’s imagination, as far as I am concerned.
Even then, the assessed value is a fictional number that doesn’t seem to relate to reality. I did some research and found that the land value (91% of my assessment total), does not relate to whether there is a view or not; whether or not there is a ravine or park backing the lot; or even by dollar per square foot. Nearby properties range from $36 per square foot to $92 per square foot, which makes little sense. The information on the BC Assessment website was somewhat incorrect, and the piece of land that my home sits on determines more than 90% of what will be expected to pay in property taxes.
This system of determining property taxes, in my humble opinion, is just plain nuts. Letters to council and mayor resulted in responses from only three of the nine, and only one MLA bothered to respond so far — and the three councillors just passed the buck, blaming the province.
There needs to a provincial law stating that property taxes for unchanged houses/properties have no more than a certain percentage increase over the previous year.
My pension went up by 1% this year. So from previous experience, the quoted “about $55 increase in Coquitlam” is in my view just fiction that does not relate to my reality for my nearly 50-year-old house.
Sarah Wilson, Coquitlam
