It happens quite often that the area of your house listed in the BAG is not correct with the actual area. You then have a good chance of paying too much tax on your home. Here we explain how you can fix that.
What counts as area for the BAG and the WOZ?
Before you want to file an objection, it is briefly important to know what may and may not count as area for the BAG and for the WOZ.
The BAG and the WOZ use the NEN2580 measurement instruction. You’ll read how that works in this blog. The area that counts is the living area + other indoor space (such as an attached garage).
The area of external storage space, gardens, patios, detached sheds, detached garages or common areas (such as a common entrance hall) all do NOT count in the calculation of area for the BAG and of the WOZ. But note that this other indoor space does count. A good example of other indoor space is a garage or storage shed attached to the house. Now there is something complicated going on with our friends at the BAG. SOMS an attached garage or shed does count as BAG surface area and SOMS it does NOT. To help you determine whether or not your garage or storage shed counts toward the BAG, we have . we wrote this separate blog for you .
There is a difference between the BAG and residential area of municipal taxes
Note that your property may be listed in the BAG as 62m2 in size, for example. Therefore, this area of 62m2 appears on your WOZ assessment. If you then call the municipal taxes and ask on the basis of what area they charged your home, it could be a completely different area again, for example 51m2. (The sizes we mention here as examples, by the way, come from a real-life case study.)
Please note that your WOZ assessment always shows the area from the BAG and therefore not the area used for the municipal taxes. This, of course, is incredibly confusing!
Where does the municipality base the living area on which they send me a WOZ assessment?
According to the municipality, most of the surface areas were measured based on building records and/or floor plans. However, they also admit that there are quite often errors in this.
How do I find out what area the municipality used in the WOZ assessment?
You can always request the WOZ valuation report from the municipality. You can even easily download this online directly for free in most cases. You will then only need your DigiD login information.
What you can also do is call municipal taxes (the number listed on the assessment notice) and ask on the basis of which utilization area the WOZ assessment was calculated.
Where and how can you get an incorrect area of your house changed?
We recommend that you always do this DOUBLE, namely by following the following 2 steps:
1. File against your WOZ assessment
2. Communicating the error to the BAG.
Below is the explanation.
Step 1: object to the excessive area via deposit against the WOZ assessment
The first step is to file an objection to the WOZ assessment. You can do that quite easily if you do a quick google search for “object woz decision + (name of your municipality). You can often do this easily online via DigiD. Then indicate in that objection that you think the value was set too high. As justification, you state that the use area is too high. Send proof along. Perhaps you have a recent appraisal report, a measurement report and/or a floor plan with measurements of your home. This objection will be on the desk of the WOZ assessor who will look at it. Take a note: if you bring up an appraisal report as evidence, take a moment to make sure the appraisal value has been rendered unrecognizable. This is also something the appraiser (us) can do for you.
Although the objection period against a WOZ assessment is only a few weeks (may vary from one municipality to another), our advice is still to simply file that objection already, even if it is too late. If you are ruled in favor (after the objection period) then and if the WOZ value is adjusted by more than 20%, you will still receive money back over the tax year assessed. More importantly, the municipality will notify a the BAG that the usable area of your home needs to be changed and also what that area should be.
Note: If the BAG receives notification from the municipality that the usable area of your home is incorrect + what should be the correct area, there is a chance that the BAG will be stubborn and still not adopt this. The officials in charge literally tell us this themselves. Therefore, it is also important to report the incorrect area of your property to the BAG itself. See below step 2.
Step 2: report the incorrect area of your home to the BAG
The BAG calls this: “making a return notification. Don’t worry, this is very easy. The only thing is that we strongly advise you to arrange 1 or more supporting documents in advance that should show the correct area. So this could be a recent appraisal report, a measurement report and/or a floor plan with measurements of your home.
To do so, follow the following steps:
- Go to https://bagviewer.kadaster.nl
- On the left, find the address of your property (see example).
- On the right side you will see the information of your property ( see example).
- Under ‘Residence object’, click on the pencil icon (see example).
- If you want to report that the BAG area is incorrect, check the area and click continue (see example)
- In the next window, you then specify what you think the correct area should be and what you base it on. Also send along evidence such as an appraisal report (with an unrecognized assessed value), a measurement report and/or floor plans (see example). Tip: a little further on in this article you can very easily copy the sample text for the objection and use it for your objection.
- In the next step, fill in your details and click “send” (see example).
- And ready.
Sample objection to the BAG area of your property:
We’ll help you with 2 examples you can fill out in this step of making your change request to the land registry:
Example 1
The area of my property is not correct. The correct area of my property should be: 70m2.
Substantiation:
I recently had my property appraised. The appraiser measured the house according to the current measurement instructions and arrived at 70m2 of usable living space including other indoor space. I received a validated appraisal report from the appraiser, in which you can also read this. I have enclosed these as an exhibit to this feedback.
Example 2
The area of my property is not correct. The correct area of my property should be: 70m2.
Substantiation:
I had a recent measurement report done on my home. I am also sending this measurement report with this objection. The surveyor measured the house according to the applicable measuring instructions and arrived at 70m2 of usable living space including other indoor space. I have enclosed the measurement report as an exhibit to this feedback.
When does it make no sense to object to an incorrect BAG area of a property?
A limited variance in living area is allowed. As a rule of thumb, the municipality often uses a maximum of 10%. Thus, if a house of 100m2 usable area is actually 92m2, then an objection to the BAG area of that house will most likely not result in a lower tax assessment.
Need help successfully changing BAG area of your property?
For example, we can help you get an appraisal report on your property and the proper guidance to file the appeal. Please email info@vkmakelaars.nl and put the following in this email:
-The address of the property
-Mention briefly that this is help with objection to the BAG surface
-Your name, email address and phone number
(We will contact you within 1 business day with no obligation).
Useful relevant articles to this topic:
Determining the living area of your home
Knowing whether or not your attached garage or shed counts toward the BAG.