What the January notice actually means, how to check it against comparables, and how the review and complaint process works.
Every January the City of Calgary mails a property assessment notice to every property owner. It contains a single number — the assessed value of your property — and that number, multiplied by the tax rate set later in the year, becomes your property tax bill.
Most owners glance at it, note whether it went up, and file it. But there is a limited window each year in which you can ask questions and, if something is genuinely wrong, formally challenge it. Once that window closes, the number stands for the year.
Errors do happen — a basement recorded as developed when it is not, square footage that does not match, a garage that was demolished years ago, a lot size that is wrong. The City assesses hundreds of thousands of properties using mass appraisal, and mass appraisal makes individual mistakes.
How the City values your home, the two dates everyone confuses, and why it is not your market value.
The City values every property in Calgary using mass appraisal — statistical models applied to sales data across neighbourhoods and property types, adjusted for characteristics like size, age, condition, lot, and location. Nobody walks through your house. The model works from the property details the City holds on file for you.
The assessment sets your share; Council sets the rate. Your property tax is roughly your assessed value multiplied by the tax rate established in the spring budget process. This is why an assessment increase does not automatically mean a proportionate tax increase — what matters most is how your property moved relative to everyone else's. If every home in Calgary rose 8% and yours rose 8%, your tax share is essentially unchanged.
Your notice and the City's assessment search show the characteristics on file: living area, year built, basement development, garage, lot size, and more. These drive the valuation. An error here produces an error in the number, and it is the easiest kind of problem to get corrected.
An overstated assessment means you pay more than your share, every year, until it is corrected. Twenty minutes in January is a good trade.
Your assessment reflects estimated market value as of July 1 of the year before the notice. The assessment you receive in January 2026 reflects what the property was worth on July 1, 2025 — not what it is worth in January 2026.
This is the single biggest source of confusion. In a market that moved after July, owners look at current listings and conclude the City has it wrong. It has not; it is answering a question about a date six months ago.
The physical characteristics used are those as of December 31 of the previous year. So if you finished your basement in November, that is reflected. If you finished it in February, it is not — it will appear on next year's assessment.
Any comparable sales you rely on must be relevant to the July 1 valuation date. A sale from last month is not persuasive evidence about a value six months earlier, particularly if the market moved in between. Sales clustered around the previous spring and summer carry weight.
Your purchase price is useful evidence — but only if the purchase happened reasonably close to the valuation date and was an arm's-length transaction. A purchase in the previous June is strong. A purchase last week says little about July of last year.
Sellers ask us this constantly. Your assessment is a mass appraisal estimate tied to a date up to eighteen months before you list. It knows nothing about your renovated kitchen finishes, your specific view, your lot's orientation, or what the market has done since. Homes routinely sell well above and well below assessment, and neither is unusual.
“It is listed above assessment” is not, by itself, an argument that a home is overpriced — nor does listing below assessment mean it is a bargain. The assessment is answering a different question, at a different time, with far less information than a proper comparative market analysis.
As a rough sanity check, and as a signal when it is dramatically out of line with comparable homes on your street — which is exactly the situation worth investigating, because it may indicate an error in the property details the City holds.
If you want to know what your home would actually sell for today, that is a comparative market analysis using recent sales, current competition, and the specifics of your property. We do them at no cost and no obligation — and we will tell you honestly if the answer is not what you hoped.
The City does not visit your home to assess it. It values hundreds of thousands of properties at once with a method that is fair on average and occasionally wrong in particular.
The City groups properties by location and type, studies the sales that happened in each group around the valuation date, and builds a model that explains those prices from the characteristics it has on file: lot size, living area, age, quality, basement development, garage, and so on. Your assessment is the model's output for your record.
Only what is in its records: the building permit history, past inspections, and what previous owners or you have told it. If your basement was developed without a permit, the record may say it is undeveloped; if a previous owner reported a renovation that never happened, the record may say it did. Both errors move the number.
Two similar homes on one street can carry different assessments because the records differ, not because the City judged one better. The first step in any review is checking what the record says about yours.
The model aims at what the home would likely have sold for on the valuation date, in a typical sale. It is not a prediction of what it will sell for when you list.
The notice is short, and most owners read only the total. Each line on it is a lever, and the dates on it are deadlines.
The value is the City's estimate as of the valuation date. The assessment class, residential in most cases, decides which tax rate applies. A home with a legal suite or a home-based business can carry a mixed class, which changes the tax.
The notice shows the change from the previous year. A rise in your assessment does not by itself raise your tax; what matters is whether your home rose more or less than the typical home in the city, because the tax rate is set afterwards to raise the budget.
The notice, or the City's online record behind it, lists the characteristics used. This is where you compare what the City thinks your home is against what it actually is.
The customer review period runs for a set number of weeks from the mailing date. Questions and informal corrections happen inside it. The formal complaint deadline follows; miss it and the value stands for the year whatever its merits.
A twenty-minute review, what counts as grounds, and how the complaint process works.
Log in to the City of Calgary's assessment search with the access code on your notice and read the property characteristics carefully. Square footage, basement development, garage, year built, lot size, bathroom count. This is where errors live, and a factual error is by far the easiest thing to have corrected.
The City's assessment search lets you look at other properties. Find homes genuinely comparable to yours — similar age, size, style, condition, and street — and compare assessed values, ideally on a per-square-foot basis. You are looking for a pattern, not a single outlier.
Not “is my assessment higher than last year?” but “is my assessment fair relative to comparable properties, as of July 1 last year?” Equity with comparable homes is the standard that actually matters, and an assessment can be both accurate in isolation and inequitable relative to neighbours.
During the review period you can contact the assessment department at no charge to ask how your value was determined and to point out errors. Many issues are resolved at this stage without any formal complaint. Have your roll number, your notice, and your specific question ready.
A factual error in the property record — wrong square footage, a basement recorded as developed when it is unfinished, a garage that no longer exists, an incorrect lot size. Assessment materially out of line with genuinely comparable properties. Condition issues the model cannot see, such as significant unrepaired damage or a property in substantially poorer condition than its neighbours. And a recent arm's-length purchase price close to the valuation date that is meaningfully below the assessment.
That your taxes went up. That you cannot afford the increase. That the tax rate is too high — that is a Council budget matter, entirely separate from your assessment. That your assessment rose more in percentage terms than you expected. And your opinion of value without evidence to support it.
You are arguing that the assessed value is wrong for the valuation date, or that it is inequitable compared with similar properties. Both need evidence: the property record, comparable assessments, sales data, photographs of condition issues, contractor quotes for significant defects.
A 2% difference from your own estimate is not worth pursuing — mass appraisal is not precise to that level and neither is any valuation method. A 15% overstatement, or a factual error about your basement, is absolutely worth raising.
Each year there is a review period of roughly sixty days from when notices are mailed — the exact deadline is printed on your notice, and it is firm. During this window you can contact the City's assessment team free of charge, ask how your value was arrived at, and raise errors. Many concerns are resolved here, and this is where you should always start.
If the review period does not resolve it, you can file a complaint with the Assessment Review Board, an independent tribunal. There is a filing fee, which is refunded if your complaint succeeds. The complaint must be filed by the same deadline printed on your notice — the review period and the complaint deadline are the same date, so do not use up the whole window on informal conversations.
You present evidence supporting a different value; the City presents evidence supporting its assessment. Come with comparable assessments and sales relevant to the July 1 valuation date, documentation of any factual error, and photographs or quotes for condition issues. It is an evidence-based process, not a discussion about fairness in the abstract.
For a typical residential property most owners handle this themselves — the process is designed to be accessible. Agents who take a percentage of your savings exist; read their terms closely, because a multi-year contract for a modest reduction is often a poor trade. We are happy to help you assess whether you have a case before you decide.
The strongest complaints are built the way an appraiser or a REALTOR® would build a valuation: sales of similar homes, near the valuation date, adjusted honestly.
Sales of similar homes in your community or a comparable one, as close as possible to the valuation date on your notice, not sales from this spring. The City's own tools show the sales it used and the assessments of neighbouring homes, and we can pull the full MLS® record for each.
A comparable with a developed basement, a larger lot or a newer kitchen is worth more than yours, so its price must be adjusted down before it supports your number. Reviewers see unadjusted lists every day and give them little weight. Three well-adjusted sales beat ten raw ones.
The model assumes typical condition. A home with a failing foundation, an old roof and original everything is below typical, and that is a legitimate argument when it is documented with photos, quotes and inspection reports.
A one-page summary: your assessment, your proposed value, the three to five sales with their adjustments, and the documents behind any condition argument. Reviewers respond to clarity. Grievances about taxes, the City or the neighbours do not help the case.
A formal complaint goes to an independent board, not to the assessor who valued your home. The hearing is short, procedural and winnable if you prepare.
The complaint form, the fee, and a clear statement of what you say the value should be and why. The fee is refunded if the board changes the assessment. Filing without a number and reasons is the most common way to lose before the hearing starts.
Both you and the City exchange evidence before the hearing, on a schedule the board sets. Anything not disclosed in time cannot be used. Put everything in your package; you cannot add the key sale at the hearing.
Usually brief. You present, the City's assessor responds, the panel asks questions, and a written decision follows. Be factual, be short, and answer what is asked. The panel is deciding a value, not refereeing a dispute.
Raise, lower or confirm the assessment. Raising it is rare but possible if your own evidence shows the City was low, which is one more reason to build the case honestly before you file.
Buyers and sellers both look at the assessment with questions. Here is what it can and cannot tell each of them.
The assessment estimates value as of a date months before you looked at the home. It tells you roughly what the tax bill will be, and whether the City's record of the home matches what you were shown. It does not tell you what to offer; recent sales of comparable homes do.
An assessment well below your expected price is not a problem to fix before listing; buyers' agents know what the number is. An assessment well above it can be a tool, used carefully, in the listing conversation. Neither replaces a proper comparable-sales valuation.
Your purchase price becomes one of the sales the City studies for the next valuation. If you paid well above the assessment, expect the next notice to move. If you paid below it, the purchase price alone will not lower it, but it is strong evidence in a complaint if other sales agree.
The contract, the statement of adjustments and the inspection report are the evidence base for any future complaint, and for the tax conversation if you ever sell at a gain.
Condominiums, new builds and homes with suites are assessed with the same method but with their own wrinkles. Each one has produced surprised owners.
Each unit is assessed separately, from sales of similar units in the building and comparable buildings. Floor level, view, parking and size drive the model. The building's reserve fund, fees and condition do not appear in the record, which is why two buildings with very different health can carry similar assessments per square foot.
In the year a home is completed, the assessment may reflect only the land or a partially built home, depending on the date of completion. The following year it jumps to a full value. Budget for the second year's bill, not the first.
A legal secondary suite can change the assessment class for part of the home, which changes the tax rate on that part. A home-based business with customers or stock on site may do the same. The City's record of the use matters as much as the value.
Finish a basement, add a garage or complete an addition partway through the year and the City can issue a supplementary notice for the added value, prorated for the months remaining. It arrives separately and has its own review period.
If you are not sure whether your assessment is defensible, we will look at the comparables with you before you decide whether to file — and tell you honestly if we think you do not have a case.
Bring us your notice before the deadline printed on it. We will compare your assessment against genuinely similar homes and tell you whether it is worth your time.
Book a CallThis guide is for general information only and is not legal, financial, insurance, inspection, tax, or condo document review advice.
Buyers and homeowners should seek advice from appropriate professionals — including their lawyer, mortgage professional, home inspector, insurance provider, qualified condo document reviewer, accountant where applicable, and REALTOR® — before making decisions or removing conditions.
Calgary Listings Group — Calgary market analysis, every day.
