Pre-roll review: lowering your BC assessment before it's mailed

Most owners think about their assessment in January, when the notice lands. By then the value is already set. There is an earlier, quieter opportunity to influence a commercial value: the pre-roll review, run in the fall before the roll closes. It is the stage where a value can be adjusted without a complaint, a fee, or a panel.

What is a pre-roll review?

A pre-roll review is a fall conversation between a property owner (or their agent) and BC Assessment, held before the assessment roll is finalized. The owner shares actual financial information, the assessor reviews it against the draft value, and the value can be adjusted administratively, all before the roll is published in January.

BC Assessment describes its pre-roll consultation as “an opportunity for property owners or their agents to exchange information and dialogue with BC Assessment prior to the release of the Assessment Roll in January.” The stated intent is to lead to greater acceptance and understanding of the upcoming values, which is exactly why it is a natural moment to correct an assessment that is drifting above what a property actually earns.

Pre-roll review is most relevant to income-producing commercial property, where BC Assessment values buildings using assumed rents, vacancy, and capitalization rates. If your building runs below those assumptions, the fall is the time to show it. For a fuller explanation of the method, see how BC Assessment values commercial property.

How can a value change before the roll closes?

The assessor has statutory authority to gather information and complete the roll each year, and can adjust a draft value administratively during that process. The mechanism is the assessor requesting financial information, reviewing your response, and setting the value that appears on the finished roll. No complaint is filed and no hearing is held.

Two sections of the Assessment Act frame this. Section 15 lets an authorized person, by written notice, require an owner or occupier to provide property information within 21 days of the notice being sent. Section 3 requires the assessor to complete a new assessment roll on or before December 31 of each year. Between the request for information in the fall and the December 31 roll close, there is a real window in which a value is still being set rather than merely reviewed.

One point of realism belongs here. The assessor considers the information an owner provides, but the Act does not oblige the assessor to adopt an owner’s figures. The value that lands on the roll remains the assessor’s, so a pre-roll review is best understood as a well-supported request rather than a guaranteed reduction. That is not a weakness of the stage. It is the reason the quality of the submission matters: an assessor who is shown clear, current financials that contradict an assumption has a concrete basis to adjust, while a vague objection gives them nothing to act on.

The distinction from January still matters. Once the roll is published, changing a value means filing a complaint and making a case to a panel. In the fall, changing a value means giving the assessor better information before the number is locked. Same goal, far less friction.

What evidence moves an assessor in the fall?

Actual financial performance is what moves a pre-roll value. For an income property that means real operating numbers: recent income and expense statements, a current rent roll, and evidence of vacancy or below-market leases. The gap between what BC Assessment assumes and what the building actually earns is the argument.

BC Assessment is explicit about the inputs it wants. For income-producing properties, it asks owners to provide “the last three years of income and expense statements relative to the property, the rent roll as of July 1st … appraisals, opinions of values with sales information” by the fall deadline. The strongest submissions tie those numbers back to the specific assumptions in BC Assessment’s own valuation: an assumed rent above your signed leases, a vacancy allowance below your real vacancy, or an expense ratio that understates what the building costs to run.

Note the July 1 anchor. BC Assessment values property as of July 1 of the prior year, so a rent roll dated July 1 speaks directly to the valuation date. That timing point runs through the whole appeal cycle, and is covered in why your assessment does not match market value.

The clearest way to find the gap is to start from the assessor’s own figures. For a commercial property, the owner or an authorized agent can request a Property Valuation Summary from BC Assessment at no charge. It lists the assumed rent, vacancy, expenses and cap rate behind the value, so a pre-roll submission can answer the assessment line by line rather than in general terms.

Which properties benefit most from a pre-roll review?

A pre-roll review pays off where the assessor’s standard assumptions and the building’s real performance clearly diverge. In practice that means income-producing property with financial evidence to show, not a hunch that the number feels high. The strongest candidates share a few traits: leases signed below current market rent, real vacancy above the typical allowance, or operating costs that run heavier than a standard expense ratio would suggest.

Buildings in transition are also worth a fall look. A property that lost a major tenant, took on unexpected capital repairs, or saw its income fall between valuation dates may carry a draft value that no longer fits. Where the story is documented in leases and statements, the fall is the moment to put it in front of the assessor. Where there is no financial gap to demonstrate, a pre-roll review has little to work with, and the honest answer may be that the value is fair. That same discipline runs through our guide on whether you should appeal.

Pre-roll versus appealing in January

Both paths can lower a value, but they run at different times, carry different friction, and suit different situations. The pre-roll review is the low-friction fall path; the January complaint is the formal path once the roll is set, running through BC’s two appeal levels. Many owners use both across a season: correct what they can in the fall, then file a protective complaint in January for anything still unresolved.

Choosing pre-roll does not close off the January complaint. If the assessor does not adjust the value, you keep the full complaint and appeal process. The two are complementary, not alternatives. For the January path in detail, see whether you should appeal your assessment and the BC Assessment appeal deadlines.

What Valorem does during pre-roll season

Valorem runs the fall review as an ordinary part of the season. We collect the financial information the assessor needs, compare it against the draft value, prepare the submission, and manage the exchange, so an over-assessed value can be corrected before it is ever published. When a value cannot be resolved in the fall, we carry it into the January complaint process rather than letting the window pass.

The submission itself is only as good as the numbers behind it. A rent roll dated to the July 1 valuation date, three years of income and expense statements, and a clear read of where BC Assessment’s assumptions diverge from reality are what give the assessor something to act on. Vague objections do not move a value; a documented gap between assumed and actual performance does. That is the same evidentiary bar the January complaint has to clear, which is why work done well in the fall also strengthens any fallback complaint later.

Because the pre-roll deadlines fall in August and the discussion window closes in early December, the practical constraint is starting early enough to gather clean financials. That is worth flagging on any file where the current assessment already looks high relative to income. If you want a portfolio looked at before the fall window, our contact page is the place to start.

Cost tends to be the next question. A pre-roll review carries no government fee, and the way you pay for help is a separate decision from the process itself. We work on contingency, so the fee is a share of the tax savings and there is nothing to pay when a value does not come down. The tradeoffs between contingency, flat and hourly arrangements are laid out in our guide on BC property tax appeal fees.