Re: Surrey residential property values up 34 to 50 per cent.
Where is the outrage? We received our assessment– up 48 per cent! We have lived in our single-family home for almost 40 years. So why, just as we are going to retire, has our property been increased to such an extent?
Some properties around us are being rebuilt for purposes of renting suites – often multiple and some illegal, while our property, while well-maintained, has not changed for many years.
Other properties around us were bought up and held (with their illegal suites to help cover the mortgage costs), only to be flipped months later for a huge profit as the property values increased.
The artificial and arbitrary basis for assessment serves only developers and not families – especially those who are retired. Many families will be forced from their homes, finding themselves no longer able to afford to live in them.
There need to be some changes made as to how we are taxed. We should not be driven from our homes because of the activities (unscrupulous or otherwise) of others.
As for the homeless in Surrey... let the City of Surrey not be the main contributor to the increase in homelessness.
This is why communities should elect councils and mayors who do not represent big business. We need representatives who will protect the interests of the people who call Surrey home and wish to continue to do so.
Evan Holmes, Surrey
Astronomical increase in market value – imagine that
Aren’t property assessments wonderfully imaginative things?
From 2013 through 2015 my increase amounted to one per cent or $1.
From 2016 to 2017 the increase is 54 per cent – adding almost $400,000 to my assessment.
I’ve not done a thing to the house – not a lick of paint, a new doorknob or even a replacement light bulb, although there is a new hummingbird feeder outside the kitchen window.
Because developers bought a 16-acre parcel at the end of my street and have built multi-million-dollar homes there, I am being heavily penalized along with others who have lived here for more than 25 years – a very unfair practice “due to sales activity in your area.”
Sheila Gair, Surrey