Request for Information

Property assessment is the process of estimating the market value of a property for taxation purposes. The assessed value of a property and the tax rates set by the municipality determine the amount of municipal tax and provincial education tax that is levied.

Property assessments are based on the market value of a property. As such, we are collecting and verifying information that may affect market value for each property. Maintaining accurate information on each property is essential to ensuring fair and equitable assessments.

The time to complete the survey will vary by user and property, but five to ten minutes is typical.

As much detail as you have readily available. However, it is not necessary to measure room sizes or the amount of floor covering, percentage estimated are appropriate. The answers to most questions will be information that you already know off the top of your head.

The surveys are mailed to the current owner as registered at Alberta Land Titles. There is often a delay of one to two months between the time a property is transferred and the change in ownership is registered at Land Titles and then distributed to each municipality. If you are no longer the owner, please disregard the survey.

The distinction between a renovation and maintenance can vary depending on the type of property. Installation of a forced air furnace to replace an existing forced air furnace would typically be maintenance. However, if the furnace is replacing gravity heat in an older home, it would be considered an upgrade or renovation. Similarly, re-painting a room as it has been several years since it was painted would be maintenance. Re-painting the entire house to modernize the décor could be considered a renovation.

It is best to provide as much detail as you are able regarding renovations and replacements and the assessor will review and adjust the assessment as necessary.

That’s OK, please provide your best guess as to when an item was renovated.

Basement finish is typically considered living area, so it would include rooms like recreation or family room, bedroom, bathroom or finished storage room. It would not include the utility room or unfinished cold storage room. If there are unfinished items in your basement such as floor or ceiling finish, please indicate this on the survey as it will be accounted for in the calculation of the assessment.

In addition to the survey, you may see Accurate Assessment Group (AAG) personnel in your area taking pictures and updating additional information on all properties. After reviewing all available information, they may still require additional information or clarification and will be in contact if that is applicable to you.

Accurate Assessment Group (AAG) assesses the municipality annually and typically does a physical re‐inspection of each property every five years at minimum. This survey is part of that complete re-inspection so you will only need to complete the survey every five years.

Any questions regarding AAG’s authorization on behalf of the municipality can be directed to the municipality.

Once the survey is submitted, it cannot be changed. If you would like to correct one of your answers, please reach out to the assessor listed on your request for information letter and they can help you with the change. If you do not have your letter, please contact our reception at 1-877-438-2305 and they can connect you to the appropriate individual that can assist.

The survey is intended to assist with the collection and verification of the information that we have on each property to ensure that the assessments are as accurate as possible. In addition to the surveys, we conduct field inspections to further validate the information that we have on each property. For properties where it appears that something may have changed and no response has been received, we may physically visit each property and leave call back cards to confirm information. If we are unable to connect with the owners via these methods, then the assessment will be based on an exterior inspection.

In some situations, failure to respond may result in loss in the ability to submit a complaint against your assessment, as defined in Section 295(4) of the Municipal Government Act.

Completion of the survey will result in ensuring that your assessment is correct. How the supplied information will impact the assessment varies from property to property, depending on the information currently on file and any changes to the property completed since the last assessment.

Due to system limitations, only the first primary owner as noted by the municipal office is included in the survey.

Assessments in Alberta are based on market value. In order to calculate the market value of income-producing properties, it is essential that we gather information on typical rental/lease rates and associated expenses. This process is typical throughout Alberta and authorized under Section 295 of the Municipal Government Act.

Your ability to submit a complaint against your assessment may be limited or eliminated, as per section 295 (4) of the Municipal Government Act.

(4)  No person may make a complaint in the year following the assessment year under section 460 or, in the case of designated industrial property, under section 492(1) about an assessment if the person has failed to provide any information requested under subsection (1) within 60 days from the date of the request.

Yes, if you have reports such as a rent roll that provides the same information that is requested on the survey forms, please feel free to submit those in lieu of the templated forms. Various file formats including PDF and Excel are acceptable.

Yes, it is important that we have current and accurate information to ensure a fair and equitable assessment.

Many commonly used file types are accepted, including PDF, Excel (xls, xlsx), Word (doc, docx), image (jpg, bmp, png).

Yes. If the property is owner occupied or leased to a non-arms length entity, please indicate that on the forms. If the property is vacant, it is important that you return the form indicating the amount of vacancy so that we can include it in our vacancy study.

The survey is conducted on an annual basis to ensure accurate information is utilized in the calculation of assessments. Rents, operating expenses and vacancy changes regularly and it is important that we maintain current information to ensure accurate and equitable assessments.

Yes. If you have not submitted the survey, logging back into the survey with your roll number and survey key will let you continue from where you left off.

If the webpage was left open for an extended time, your session may time out. This may be evident by either the “Next” button disappearing or not working. This can be resolved by either refreshing your web browser page or closing and logging back into the survey. Your previous progress will be saved and you will re-join the survey on the last page that was fully completed.

Microsoft Edge, Chrome and Firefox are recommended web browsers.