How we check a Vancouver address

Every address page is built the same way, from public records, with the same rules for every property. Here is what we use, how we match it, and where the limits are.

Where the records come from

The City of Vancouver’s open data: the property tax report (BC Assessment values for every lot and every strata unit, seven years back), building permits issued since 2017, zoning, designated floodplains, the Heritage Register, rental standards issues, lanes, street trees and 1 m elevation contours.

Crime incidents come from the Vancouver Police Department’s open data, transit stops and lines from TransLink, and school catchments from the Vancouver School Board. The date of the last download is on every page and on the data sources page.

How records are matched to an address

Each civic address in the City’s address register is joined to its tax lot. Strata units are joined to their own building by the building number on the tax roll, so two towers on one lot each get their own units. Buildings that are missing from the address register, such as new towers and duplex halves, get a page from the tax roll.

Permits are matched by their address and, where the address is missing or different, by their location on the lot outline (within 8 m). Lot sizes are measured from the City’s parcel outlines and are approximate; a survey decides.

How findings are written

A fixed set of rules turns the records into findings, each tagged Serious, Check, Note or Clear. For example: a lot inside a designated floodplain is Serious; a strata building from 1982 to 2000 with no envelope repair permit is Check; a house built before 1990 gets a Note about an asbestos survey.

The free page shows the title of every finding. The full report adds what each record says, what it means for a buyer and what to ask the seller, with a link to the source dataset.

Comparisons such as “older than 80% of the buildings on the street” rank the address against the other addresses on the same street, or in the same neighbourhood when the street is short, using the same BC Assessment figures.

What a report is not

It is a screening of public records before an offer. It is not a home inspection, an appraisal, a title search or legal advice.

Some things are not in open data: permits before 2017, heating-oil tank removals (handled by the fire department), strata minutes and depreciation reports, and anything on the title. The report names these gaps and tells you who to ask.

How fresh the records are

We download the City, police, school board and transit data again on a schedule and rebuild every page from it. Each page shows the date of the data it was built from; a new permit or assessment appears after the next update, not the same day.

What we never do

We do not publish owner names or mailing addresses, we do not sell personal information, and no one can pay to add, soften or remove a finding. Every finding names its source dataset so you can check it.

Corrections

If a record on a page looks wrong, write to us through the contact page with the address. We check it against the source and fix our matching if it is ours to fix.

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