New Westminster Property Tax: Due Dates, Grants, and Deferment

Property tax in New Westminster is your home’s BC-assessed value divided by 1,000 and multiplied by the residential rate set each year in the city’s Annual Rates Bylaw. For 2026, payment is due July 2, and a 5 percent penalty applies to any unpaid balance, including any unclaimed Home Owner Grant, starting July 3. A second 5 percent penalty follows on September 3.¹

How Your Bill Is Calculated

Every January, BC Assessment sends you a notice showing what your property would have sold for as of July 1 of the previous year. That figure, based on comparable sales, the size and condition of your home, and its location, is the starting point for the tax bill, not your purchase price and not your mortgage balance.²

City council then sets a tax rate for each property class (residential, commercial, light industrial, and others), expressed as an amount per $1,000 of assessed value. Take your assessed value, divide by 1,000, and multiply by the rate. A home assessed at $900,000 with a residential rate of 3.5 produces a gross tax of $3,150. Rates shift each year as council’s budget changes and as overall assessed values across the city move up or down.

Due Date and Penalties

The 2026 due date is July 2, 2026. The first 5 percent penalty hits any current-year balance on July 3, and a further 5 percent applies to anything still outstanding on September 3.¹ The city has no authority to waive or reduce these penalties. One day late is the same as a month late for the first charge.

An unclaimed Home Owner Grant counts as unpaid tax for penalty purposes, so if you qualify, claim it before July 2 even if you don’t need to send a cheque for the rest.

How to Pay

Your 8-digit folio number, printed on the front of the tax notice, is the account identifier for most payment methods.¹

Online or telephone banking: search for “New Westminster” in your bank’s bill-pay list, choose the taxes payee, and enter your folio number as the account. Allow at least three business days for the payment to reach the city.
Credit card: through the city’s online portal at newwestcity.ca. A convenience fee applies.
In person at your bank: bring the tax notice to a teller. Payment must be received by the due date.
In person at city hall: Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Drop box: a 24-hour box at the north entrance of city hall accepts cheques and bank drafts payable to the City of New Westminster. Cheques may be postdated to the due date.
Mail: a cheque or bank draft must arrive at city hall by the due date. A postmark on or before July 2 will not protect you if the envelope arrives later.

Returned cheques are treated as non-payment and trigger any applicable penalties.

Home Owner Grant

The province offers a Home Owner Grant that directly reduces the tax you owe on your principal residence. For homes in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, which includes New Westminster, the regular grant is $570. Seniors 65 or older, veterans, and people with disabilities qualify for a larger additional grant instead.³

To qualify, you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, live in British Columbia, and occupy the property as your principal residence. The full grant is available on assessed values up to $2,075,000 for 2026. Above that threshold, the grant shrinks by $5 for every $1,000 of additional value and eventually phases out.³

The grant is administered by the province, not by city hall. You apply on the provincial website using your Social Insurance Number, folio number, and legal description, all printed on your tax notice. Apply before the July 2 deadline; any unclaimed amount is treated as unpaid tax and hit with the July 3 penalty.¹

If you forgot to claim last year’s grant, you can file a retroactive application. It must be received by December 31 of the current year to claim the prior year’s grant.⁴

Deferment for Owners Who Can’t Pay

If paying the full bill would be a real hardship, the province runs deferment programs that function as low-interest loans. The province pays your taxes on your behalf, registers a lien against your property, and you repay the balance plus interest when the home is sold or transferred.⁵

The regular program is open to owners 55 or older, surviving spouses of someone who qualified, and people with disabilities. You must live in the home as your principal residence and keep at least 25 percent equity, meaning all charges against the property plus the taxes you want to defer cannot exceed 75 percent of the BC Assessment value.⁵

The Families With Children program is open to parents, stepparents, or anyone financially supporting a child under 18 who lives with them full or part time, or who they pay child support for. It also covers parents supporting an adult child attending a post-secondary institution or with a severe disability. The equity requirement is lower at 15 percent.⁶

Interest accrues at a rate set by the province and compounds, so a longer deferment means a larger eventual payoff and smaller net proceeds when you sell.

Spreading Payments Over the Year

New Westminster offers a Pre-Authorized Pre-Payment plan that replaces the single July bill with monthly withdrawals. Withdrawals run from August 1 through May 1 and cover both property taxes and utilities. To enrol, your current-year taxes must already be paid in full. You choose a fixed monthly amount and the city draws it automatically on the first of each month.⁷

You’ll need your folio number, utility account number, and banking details to complete the form on the city’s website. The plan is open to all property types.

Challenging Your Assessment

If the assessed value looks too high, start with an informal call to BC Assessment. Factual mistakes, like an incorrect lot size or a renovation that never happened, are sometimes fixed on the spot. If that doesn’t resolve it, file a formal complaint with the Property Assessment Review Panel.⁸

Complaints must be filed directly with BC Assessment by January 31 of the assessment year. For 2026 the deadline was extended to February 2 because January 31 fell on a weekend.⁹ Complaints mailed to the Review Panel office instead of BC Assessment are not valid. Recent sales of comparable homes in your neighbourhood are the most persuasive evidence you can bring.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay

After the two 5 percent penalties, unpaid taxes keep accumulating interest. Any balance still outstanding after December 31 of the year it was levied becomes arrears. One year later, if still unpaid, arrears become delinquent, and a delinquent property is subject to a municipal tax sale, a public auction held on the last Monday of September each year.¹⁰ Roughly three years pass between a missed payment and an auction, and after a sale the original owner has a one-year redemption period to pay what is owed plus interest and reclaim the property.

If cash flow is the real problem, applying for deferment or enrolling in the monthly plan is far cheaper than letting penalties and interest build.

Property Tax on Your Income Tax Return

Property tax on your principal residence is not deductible on your personal Canadian income tax return. If you run a business from your home, you can deduct the portion of the tax that matches the space used to earn business income, calculated on a reasonable basis and reported on Form T2125 as part of business-use-of-home expenses. Any grant or rebate related to the property tax must be subtracted from the amount you claim.¹¹

1
City of New Westminster. Property Taxes and Utilities
2
BC Assessment. Market Value and Property Assessment
3
Province of British Columbia. Home Owner Grant
4
Province of British Columbia. Retroactive Home Owner Grant
5
Government of British Columbia. Property Tax Deferment Program
6
Province of British Columbia. Property Tax Deferment Program Eligibility – Section: Families With Children Program
7
City of New Westminster. Property Tax and Annual Utilities Pre-Authorized Payment Form
8
Province of British Columbia. Property Assessment Review Panel
9
BC Assessment. Appeals
10
Government of British Columbia. Municipal Property Tax Sales – An Introduction and Best Practices
11
Canada.ca. Business Expenses