Assessment Frequently Asked Questions

We encourage you to sign up for MyProperty to gain access to the current and historical assessment and tax data specific to your property.

Once signed up, you will have access to

• your property's latest assessed value, 
• details directly related to how we estimate that value,

• the latest property tax account balance and transaction history,

• the five-year assessment and tax history of your property,

• and much more!

The City starts mailing assessment notices to all property owners in 2023 on January 16.

If you have not received your notice by early February, fill out and submit the Request for Copy of Assessment Notice or Access Code form.

Once you create a profile on MyProperty.edmonton.ca and attach your property, you will have access to your current and future property assessment notices for as long as you own your property. You can view the notices in the My Mail section of the MyProperty website.

Property owners in annexed areas will receive their assessments in January and tax notices in May - similarly to the owners of other Edmonton properties.

Absolutely. Owners of residential properties can now opt out of paper copies for assessment and taxation mail and instead receive email and text notifications when their mail is uploaded to myproperty.edmonton.ca. 

To update your notification preferences, please log in to myproperty.edmonton.ca.

The Government of Alberta legislates that the City must assess all property within Edmonton every year using a mass appraisal approach. The assessed value of your property as indicated in your latest assessment notice is your property’s market value—the amount it would have sold for based on mass appraisal in the open market—on July 1 of the previous year.

To establish an assessed value of your property, the City uses information on real estate sales that occurred up to and including last July 1 and information on any physical changes recorded up to last December 31.

Real estate market may, and often does, change between the time the City determines assessment values and the time you purchase your property.

Depending on the time of the year you purchased your property, the sale price could be either higher or lower than the assessment. 

Typically, the assessed value is within 10% of the purchase price.

Watch: Property Assessments Explained Using Fun, Visual Aids. 

 Yes. Corrections or changes to mailing addresses, owner names and changes of ownership are administered by Alberta Land Titles. The City of Edmonton receives these updates electronically once they have been processed by Alberta Land Titles. 

You can request a change of mailing address by submitting a Change of Address form. Changes or corrections to the owner's name and changes of ownership can be made by submitting the appropriate forms to Alberta Land Titles.

According to provincial legislation, the City of Edmonton determines market values of all properties within Edmonton as of July 1 by taking into account attributes that affect market value at that time and the condition of the property as of December 31.

If the Assessment Review Board reduction was not reflective of the condition of the property as of December 31, then it will not be reflected in the new assessment. For example, if the Assessment Review Board reduced the property assessment because the basement foundation had collapsed, the same reduction would not apply if the foundation was repaired by December 31.

Also, each year is treated as a new year: if the Assessment Review Board reduces a property one year, it does not necessarily mean that the same reduction would apply the next as market conditions change.

Please contact us and we will arrange for an assessor to re-inspect your property.

The annual assessment notice reflects the condition of your property as of December 31 of last year. 

If your property was mistakenly assessed as being 100% complete as of December 31, contact us to have this information reviewed and corrected if warranted.

Annual property assessment notices reflect the status and physical condition of property (what structures and finish the building had) as of December 31 of the year prior to the taxation year.

If your property was only partially complete as of December 31, your assessment notice will reflect the value of the land plus the value of the building, based on its completion percentage.

The City will issue a supplementary property assessment notice that will indicate the amount your property assessment has increased as a result of new construction.

Your supplementary assessment notice will also show the number of supplementary months (months your property was completed or occupied). Your supplementary property tax notice will indicate the additional amount of property taxes you are required to pay this taxation year.

To learn more about the City's supplementary assessment process, watch this video: What is a supplementary assessment?

The property assessment reflects the physical characteristics and attributes of your property as of December 31 of the previous year. If the building was added after this date, the assessment records show the property as vacant. 

If your property was only partially complete as of December 31, your assessment notice will reflect the value of the land plus the value of the building, based on its completion percentage.  

The City will issue a supplementary assessment notice that will reflect the value of newly completed construction.

The addition of the building will be reflected on next year's property assessment notice.

Please contact us. Any information such as this, provided by a third party, will have to be verified by the City’s assessor. A site inspection of the subject property, as well as others in the area, will be conducted to ensure that the correct data have been used to determine the assessed values.  

All properties in Edmonton are re-inspected for assessment purposes periodically, in accordance with international assessment standards. These re-inspections ensure that all property-related information the City has on file is as current as possible. 

As the City cannot reinspect 300+ neighbourhoods at once, we select a number of Edmonton communities each year for assessment re-inspection. 

These communities are called re-inspection neighbourhoods.

A re-inspection of a property will result in assessment changes if there is a change in the property that affects value (for example, a new garage, renovations or additions to the home).

Any changes to the assessment of the re-inspected property will typically be reflected in the tax year after the re-inspection was conducted.

If you have filed a formal complaint against your assessment, you still must pay the property taxes by the due date to avoid late-payment penalties.

If a decision on your complaint results in a lower tax amount, the City will credit your account and send you a statement.

No. Your property tax bill will be mailed to you at the end of May.

To estimate your property taxes, use our property tax estimator. 

To ensure all Edmonton property owners pay their fair share of municipal and provincial education property taxes, the City uses a property assessment process as legislated by the provincial government.

Your current assessment notice indicates your property’s market value—the amount it would have sold for in the open market—on July 1 of the previous year. All properties are assessed using similar factors that real estate agents and appraisers use when pricing a home for sale. This market value is then used to calculate the amount of taxes you pay in proportion to the value of the real estate you own.

The City uses the assessed value of your property to calculate your property taxes. However, increases in assessed values do not automatically mean tax increases.

Your tax increase is based on the following three main factors:

1. City Council's municipal budget increase, which is the increased revenue the City requires to fund the higher cost of programs and services
2. The Government of Alberta's education budget increase
3. The percentage change in your assessment compared to the average assessment change

Equal to: Your property tax increase will be equal to the combined municipal and education budget increase when the percent change in your assessment is equal to the average.

Higher: Your property tax increase will be higher than the combined budget increase when your assessment percent change is above the average.

Lower: Your property tax increase will be lower than the combined budget increase (or may even be offset) when your assessment percent change is below the average.

Through the property assessment process, the City determines the market value of your property. This market value is used to calculate the amount of taxes you pay in proportion to the value of the real estate you own.

The City does not get extra revenue when overall property assessments increase nor does the City receive less revenue when overall property assessments decrease.

Estimate: Property tax estimator.

Watch: Property Assessments Explained Using Fun, Visual Aids.

The City of Edmonton is legislated to release property information only to property owners.

If you would like a representative to contact the City about your property’s assessment on your behalf, you must appoint a property owner representative (agent) by submitting the City’s Agent/Representative Authorization form.

This authorization is legally binding only for one year.

According to legislation, the City of Edmonton can release property information to a property owner or a property owner representative (agent) appointed directly by the property owner.

An authorized property owner representative, or agent, is “a person authorized by another (principal) to act for or in place of him; one entrusted (sic) with another’s business.” 

In the assessment context, property owners can appoint any other person they want as an agent, including an employee, husband, wife or child.

While City assessors do not typically discuss financial details when dealing with a residential property, Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act still requires the City to protect such items as the mailing address of a property owner or the school support declaration. 

In addition, it is impossible for a municipality to agree to anything about the assessment with a party that is not the property owner or his/her duly appointed agent. Therefore, any discussion about attempting to correct an assessment on a residential property cannot be completed without the involvement of the property owner or their agent.

This authorization is legally binding only for one year.

The agent/representative authorization process applies to all “types” of property owners, including residential property owners. 

For example, if the wife is the title holder, she still must appoint her husband to act as an agent on her behalf even if he lives on the property.  

Remember that this authorization is legally binding only for one year.

Yes. The agent/representative authorization process applies to all “types” of property owners, including non-residential and commercial property owners.

For example, corporations can appoint employees or property management companies to deal with any issues relating to property assessment. 

Remember that this authorization is legally binding only for one year.

Authorization forms are usually validated within three to five business days.

The City implements the property owner agent/representative authorization process on a yearly basis for several reasons. 

First, property owners are not legally obligated to inform the City about changes to their marital status, family arrangements, employees, corporate structure or which property management company represents them.  It is important for property owners to reaffirm to the City, on a yearly basis, that an agent is still acting on their behalf. 

Second, this yearly process also allows the City to keep updated records as to who is representing a property owner to ensure that there are no inadvertent breaches of Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act when a property owner does not tell the City that an agent from the prior year no longer represents them.

Finally,  the City has experienced various attempts to obtain confidential information about a property. For example: 

• A husband who was going through a divorce attempting to find the current mailing address of his wife with intent to use that address for illicit purposes.
• An ex-employee of a corporation attempting to obtain financial data about the corporation he/she no longer works for.
• Agents that had acted for property owners in a prior year claiming they were still the agents when property owners stated that they had no agents.
• Multiple employees of the same corporation appointing agents for the same property. This situation creates uncertainty about who the City should deal with in relation to the property.

Each of these examples demonstrates that the agent/representative authorization process is designed to will stop breaches of Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. 

In order to ensure that the City of Edmonton is fully compliant with the spirit and intent of Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, property owners must submit an Agent/Representative Authorization form in order to appoint an agent/representative to deal with the City on their behalf.

When City assessors discuss the assessment of a property, it is common for them to discuss the rental rate on the property or other financial information associated with a property.

Actual financial information about a property is considered to be confidential information under Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and, therefore, cannot be released or discussed with anyone except for the property owners or their duly appointed agent. 

If such a process is not followed, the City may inadvertently release information about a property to someone who, for example, turns out to be a competitor of the property owner, resulting in harm to his or her business.