City of Saskatoon starts sending out property assessment notices

Property owners in Saskatoon shouldn’t be in for any surprises when it comes to property assessment notices.

Starting Tuesday, 14,000 property owners in the city will be sent notices and there’s a few things, if you receive one, that you’ll want to keep in mind.

“Assessed value is a number that is developed from models and it’s applied to everybody in a consistent manner so properties that have similar assessments will have similar property taxes,” city assessor Darcy Huisman said.

The assessed value of a property is not the same as the market value and these assessment notices aren’t what you owe in property taxes.

“The assessed value is used to determine the taxes that you pay – it is not a bill.”

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The base date of these assessments can also be a cause for confusion because notices will read Jan. 1, 2015.

“All municipalities in the province of Saskatchewan have the same evaluation date of Jan. 1, 2015, and that is a legislated date.”

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This provides consistency in a province were statutory reassessments are conducted every four years.

New assessment notices aren’t sent at random either; there are three reasons why a property owner would receive one:

• you purchased the property within the last year;
• there were changes to the assessed property value, for example – with a home you built an addition or developed your basement; or
• you requested one.

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According to Huisman, there should be no properties where there was a significant increase reflected on the assessment and if anything leaves you feeling a little puzzled just pick up the phone.

“If they have a question about their assessment, their exemption, their school support call us first before filing a formal appeal.”

Typically, any issues or misunderstandings are resolved over the phone, but if someone wants to file a formal appeal the time frame to do it is between Jan. 2 and Feb. 2.

If you’re wondering if it’s even worth the fight to file one, Huisman said in 2017, approximately 600 property owners pushed for changes to their assessments and 40 to 50 per cent of the time the revisions were granted by the board.