Hangar owners across BC have received an unwelcome late-Christmas present in the form of significantly higher assessments on their airport hangars this year.

For BC residents, January means the annual arrival of property assessment notices from BC Assessment which are used by municipal governments and others to determine, among other things, whether your property taxes might go up or down. COPA has been made aware by several of our members, notably on Vancouver Island, that some assessments this year are up as much as over 150%. This is seemingly due to an agency-directed reclassification of hangars to “Industrial Warehouses”, a decision that puts the buildings in the same classification as commercial storage facilities in areas such as downtown cores.

In collaboration with our legal counsel, COPA is currently exploring options to challenge this new interpretation on behalf of our members. We are looking to hear from anyone who may have been affected by this and we ask you to please contact our office at: takeaction@oldcopa.org. In the meantime, property owners have until January 31^st to appeal their assessments to BC Assessment. We strongly encourage anyone who feels their hangar has been over valued to file an appeal before the deadline to preserve the available legal avenues.

As the situation develops we will provide more updates.