What Moves an Appraisal
Whose report it is. CUSPAP 9.1.3 is explicit: residential form reports for mortgage financing "are single user reports and cannot be copied, reprinted, or produced, or transferred to another Authorized Client or Authorized User without the authorization of the author of the report" and the written authorisation of the client named in it. Rule 5.9.2 forbids disclosing the analyses, opinions or conclusions to anyone but that client and parties it authorises. OSFI's Guideline B-20, in force since 31 October 2017, requires appraisers used by federally regulated lenders to be "independent from the mortgage acquisition, loan processing and loan decision process," and 5.12.1 makes it unethical to take the assignment if the fee turns on "reporting a predetermined value." Nobody in the chain works for your price.
The grid, and why it is judgement dressed as arithmetic. The Property Assessment Appeal Board defines a comparable sale as one physically similar, "close in proximity, and selling close to the valuation date," and adjustments as dollar or percentage amounts added or subtracted "to better equate them", for time of sale, age, lot size, location, view and size of the improvements. CUSPAP's whole instruction on the method is one line: analyse "such comparable data as are available to indicate a reasonable value conclusion." No prescribed rate per square foot of gross living area, no schedule for a finished basement, a third bay or a new roof. Even age is judgement, a 1960 house extensively renovated may carry an effective age of 1995.
The other two approaches. The cost approach adds land value to the depreciated value of the improvements, on the presumption nobody pays more than the cost to replace; 9.8.4 requires a site value by an appropriate method, a cost new, and an estimate of accrued depreciation. The Board notes it is "not frequently used for older properties, due to the difficulties in accurately calculating the depreciated value", it earns its place on new construction. The income approach capitalises net operating income and belongs to revenue property. Dropping a relevant approach is not free: 9.8.1 requires an Extraordinary Limiting Condition and supporting reasons. And the answer need not be a single figure, 9.16.1 permits a range.
What a short visit is, legally. CUSPAP defines an Inspection as "a non-invasive visual observation, site visit, walk-through, or viewing of a property." It is mandatory absent an Extraordinary Limiting Condition, and must be thorough enough to do three things: describe the property, support a highest and best use opinion, and make meaningful comparisons. The report must disclose "any known or apparent restrictions, easements, encumbrances, leases, reservations, covenants", known or apparent, which is not the same as searched. Where no interior inspection is possible and the purpose is market value, the conclusion "must be stated as a value range only." Twenty minutes with a laser measure is not a permit search, a title search or a survey.
Legal suite, unauthorised suite, unit count. Highest and best use is the use that is "physically possible, legally permissible, financially feasible, and maximally productive." Zoning and other land use controls "must be identified and their effect on use and value analyzed," and where the existing use is non-conforming the appraiser "must discuss and analyze the implications." The Township of Langley is unambiguous: a building permit is required for all secondary suites, and they must conform to municipal bylaws and provincial standards for public health and safety. Unit count moves the loan as well as the value, CMHC allows up to 100 per cent of gross rents on an owner-occupied two-unit subject property, while a one-unit non-owner-occupied property is not eligible for insurance at all.
The Langley land questions. Unpermitted work is discoverable in advance: a Township File Research Letter returns current zoning, issued building permits and the dates of final inspection, and a building records search costs $30, with $63 an hour past fifteen minutes. On ALR parcels the Commission is blunt, its Act and regulations take precedence over local zoning, "minimum lot sizes in zoning bylaws do not mean that subdivision is allowed," and "the presence of buildings or ongoing activities does not mean they are authorized." Frontage and lot geometry matter because they decide whether a parcel can ever be divided, and zoning and the ALC both have to say yes. Langley City sets flood construction levels by Floodplain Elevation Bylaw No. 2768, mapped from the predicted 1:200-year flood. View and arterial exposure arrive as location adjustments, sized by judgement.
Three numbers, three jobs. Your assessment is set under section 18(1) of the Assessment Act at actual value as of 1 July of the year preceding the tax year, on the use and condition found on 31 October under section 18(2), up to eighteen months stale by the time you read it, produced by mass appraisal in which "only a limited number of properties are inspected in any given year." The Appeal Board is candid that actual value "is really a range of values" and that it will not interfere with an assessment sitting anywhere inside it. A comparative market analysis is a licensee's work product; BCFSA treats an appraisal of value as a trading service, exempt from licensing when provided by an appraiser. CUSPAP draws the line: an agency relationship "implies that the individual will maximize the position of their client," whereas appraisal services are "objective, unbiased and impartial."
When it comes in low. The gap is yours. The lender advances against its own value conclusion, and B-20 tells it to "assess and adjust, as appropriate, the value of the property for the purposes of calculating the LTV" and, in markets with rapid house price increases, to "not assume that prices will remain stable or continue to rise." A reconsideration of value is neither an appeal nor a negotiation: it is a request that the appraiser reconsider on new factual material, closed sales, not listings, that settled on or before the effective date, with reasons they are the better comparables, plus corrections to measurable facts such as gross living area, lot size, basement finish or unit count. A fresh opinion means a new appraisal, or a Review under CUSPAP Standard 10, where a second Member opines on the quality of the first. Thin markets are where this bites: 79 detached homes sold in all of Langley in July 2026, down 11.2 per cent on July 2025, against a detached benchmark of $1,500,900, 6.2 per cent below a year ago. Spread 79 sales across a dozen neighbourhoods and a quarter yields very few true comparables in any one pocket. That is why we write the BCFSA financing condition, "Subject to the Buyer being satisfied in its sole discretion, on or before [date], that it has received a satisfactory mortgage financing commitment", and why a firm offer leaves you funding the difference yourself.
Verified 25 August 2026 against the Appraisal Institute of Canada's Canadian Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (rules 3.36, 3.39, 5.9, 5.12, 7.5, 9.1, 9.3 to 9.8, 9.16 and Standard 10), OSFI Guideline B-20 on residential mortgage underwriting, CMHC's published homeowner mortgage loan insurance and rental income requirements, the Property Assessment Appeal Board's glossary of assessment and appraisal terms for sections 18(1) and 18(2) of the Assessment Act, BCFSA's guidance on appraisal services and its standard contract clauses, the Agricultural Land Commission's guidance for ALR buyers, the Township of Langley's secondary suite, file research and building records pages, the City of Langley Floodplain Elevation Bylaw No. 2768, and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's July 2026 statistics package. This report describes and informs, it is not financial or legal advice, and specifics deserve specific verification with your broker, lender and lawyer or notary. Do you know what your lender's appraiser will find on your file that you have not seen yet?