Assessment · Property roll · Quebec rules
Your assessment notice says $640,000 and your neighbour sold for $720,000. Both figures can be correct at the same time, and this guide explains why.
The property assessment roll is the inventory of every property in a municipality, with a value for each one. It is triennial: the values entered serve as the tax base for three years. The key almost nobody knows is the reference date. The assessor must consider market conditions and the state of the property as of July 1 of the second fiscal year preceding the roll's entry into force, which is 18 months earlier. Your roll value therefore describes the market as it was a year and a half ago, not today. That is why it almost always differs from the price your home would sell for. An increase in your assessment also does not automatically mean an equivalent increase in your tax bill, because the city adjusts its rates to its budget.
The property assessment roll is the inventory of every property located within a municipality. For each one it names the owner, describes the building's physical characteristics and records a value. That document is the base for municipal and school taxes: the city multiplies your roll value by its tax rate to produce your bill.
It is filed every three years. That is what triennial means: the values entered serve as the tax base for three consecutive fiscal years. In Montreal, the roll in force is the 2026-2027-2028 roll. In the Longueuil agglomeration it is the 2025-2027 roll, which we detailed in our page on the Longueuil and Brossard roll (French).
Here is the point almost nobody knows, and it settles half the misunderstandings.
To establish the value, the assessor must consider market conditions and the state of the property as of July 1 of the second fiscal year preceding the roll's entry into force, which is eighteen months earlier. Since the roll takes effect on January 1, the snapshot of the market it contains is already a year and a half old on the day it is published. And since it stays in place for three years, the value used in the third year describes a market that is four and a half years old.
Concretely, for Montreal's 2026-2027-2028 roll, the reference date is July 1, 2024. Everything that happened to the market after that date, up or down, is not in it.
This is why your roll value almost never matches the price you would get today. The two numbers do not measure the same thing at the same moment.
The value entered on the roll is not a rough estimate. The definition is precise: the real value of an assessment unit is its exchange value on a free and open competitive market, that is, the most probable price that may be paid in a sale.
In other words, the assessor is indeed aiming at market price. He is simply aiming at the price on the reference date, using mass appraisal methods applied to thousands of buildings at once, not a visit to your kitchen.
This is the second big misunderstanding. The City of Montreal says it plainly: an increase in the value of your property does not automatically translate into an equivalent increase in your tax bill.
The reason is mechanical. The municipality sets a budget every year, then adjusts its tax rate to collect the revenue it needs. If every assessment in an area rises 30%, the rate falls proportionally. What determines your bill is how your assessment moved relative to the average of your city. A 30% increase in a city where the average rose 30% changes almost nothing. A 45% increase in that same city costs you more.
Two technical notions that touch your wallet more often than people think.
The median proportion is an indicator of the general level of the values entered on the roll. It is established every year by comparing actual sale prices to recorded values, then approved by the government. It answers a simple question: overall, is the roll above or below the market?
The comparative factor follows from it. It is the tool that brings assessments from different rolls onto a comparable basis. The operation is simple: roll value multiplied by the comparative factor equals the standardized assessment. A factor of 1.12 means the roll sits roughly 12% below the target level.
Why it matters to you: the comparative factor is used to calculate transfer duties, in other words the welcome tax. The tax base is the highest of the price paid, the consideration stipulated in the deed, and the roll value multiplied by the comparative factor. On a property bought close to its assessment, it is often the adjusted roll that wins, and the bill is higher than the buyer calculated from the purchase price. We publish the grids of fifty Quebec cities with their factor.
Who can request a review. Anyone with an interest in contesting the accuracy, the presence or the absence of an entry on the roll. It is not reserved to the owner.
The deadlines, and they are strict. For a newly filed roll, the request must be filed by the later of these two dates: May 1 following the roll's entry into force, or sixty days after the notice was sent. For a property valued at three million dollars or more, that second delay becomes one hundred and twenty days, unless the roll is published online within sixty days.
If you receive a notice of modification, for instance after work or a subdivision, the deadline is the same: May 1 following the roll's entry into force, or sixty days after the notice of modification was sent, whichever is later.
Fees vary from one municipality to another. There is no single provincial tariff: the municipal body responsible for assessment sets the amount and the accepted methods of payment. Call them before filling in anything.
The form is prescribed and must be submitted in French. English versions of the instructions exist on request, but the form itself is completed in French.
The assessor examines your request and answers you. If the answer does not satisfy you, you may bring the matter before the Tribunal administratif du Québec within sixty days from the date the answer was sent. If no answer comes, you have thirty days after the expected deadline to go to the Tribunal.
Before starting any of this, ask the real question: is your assessment too high compared with comparable neighbours, or simply higher than you hoped? The roll is public. Comparing three or four similar properties on your street takes an hour and often avoids a pointless process.
The roll is a tax instrument, not a marketing one. It ignores what often makes the difference at sale: the real quality of renovations, orientation, noise, the view, the state of the roof, the layout. It also ignores today's market, by design.
Buying or selling based on the roll value means negotiating with a photograph taken eighteen months ago.
Every municipality publishes its roll online. In Montreal, you consult it on the city's website, which also lets you see all the owners of a building, whereas the assessment notice names only two. For other cities, look for the assessment roll on the municipal or agglomeration website.
Because it does not move every year. It is frozen for three years, then updates in a single step when the new roll is filed, catching up on everything the market did between the two reference dates. A 30% increase at filing is not a 30% increase in one year.
No. The buyer and their broker set the price on comparable closed sales from recent months, not on the roll. A high assessment raises your taxes without raising your sale price. The reverse is true too: a low assessment does not stop you from selling at market value.
Yes, in part. The tax base for transfer duties is the highest of the price paid, the stipulated consideration, and the roll value multiplied by the comparative factor. On a purchase close to the assessment, that last one often decides the bill.
Yes, and it is the easiest ground for review to get accepted, because it is factual. A wrong floor area, a garage that does not exist, a basement counted as finished when it is not: these are documented with photos, a certificate of location or plans, and get corrected without a debate about value.
The rules described here come from Quebec's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, on quebec.ca, and from the City of Montreal's website, both consulted on September 11, 2026. Revision fees and filing dates vary from one municipality to the next: the municipal body responsible for assessment in your area is the authority. For a contested file, a chartered appraiser or a lawyer takes over, not a broker.
The Loaa & Manseur team, led by Lotfi Manseur and Loaa Al Daow, is the number 1 team at RE/MAX Platine in 2024 and 2025, 6th RE/MAX team in Quebec, 15th in Canada and in the global top 50 of large residential teams according to the official RE/MAX ranking, computed on actual transactions. Its Google profile counts more than 220 reviews with a 4.9 rating. Its offices are at 55 avenue de l'Équinoxe in Brossard, one bridge from the island, and every broker's licence can be checked in the OACIQ public register. Three things to verify yourself before calling us, and to demand of any other broker.
Also available in French: version française de ce guide.
Published September 7, 2026 by the Loaa & Manseur team, the number 1 team at RE/MAX Platine in 2024 and 2025, 6th RE/MAX team in Quebec, 15th in Canada and in the global top 50 according to the official RE/MAX ranking. Tell us about your project.
Équipe no 1 de RE/MAX Platine en 2024 et en 2025, 6e au Québec, 15e au Canada et dans le top 50 mondial au classement officiel RE/MAX. Réponse en moins de 24 heures, sept jours sur sept.