What are assessment and rates books?
Among the most popular records with researchers, assessment books contain basic information about every property in the City of Sydney that has paid rates in a certain period.
They should not to be confused with rates books. Rates books are less used as they tend to contain less information and they have not been digitised. The rates books may be useful for comparative purposes when there is conflicting information in other sources. While some councils combined the 2 functions in the one book, the City kept them separate.
When the City was established in 1842, part of its funding came from rates levied on properties within its boundaries. To determine the rateable value of property, the City’s assessors would visit buildings every 3 to 5 years to record:
- the owner’s name
- the ratepayer’s name
- materials used to build the house - stone, timber, brick, with roof of iron, shingles and so on
- the number of rooms and levels
- the type of building – house, public house, shop, factory and so on
- the building’s assessed annual value
Occupants’ names weren't usually collected, although some assessors included additional information in the remarks column.
Links
- City of Sydney Assessment Books 1845 to 1948 – these records have been digitised and transcribed, and it is possible to do a keyword search across multiple volumes.
- Guide – City of Sydney Assessment Books – includes step-by-step instructions on how to access and search across the City of Sydney Assessment Books
How do I find my property in these records?
You need to ask the following questions to identify the correct assessment book to begin your research:
1. What suburb is my property in?
This will determine which set of council assessment books you need to consult.
2. What ward is my property in?
Check the City of Sydney historic ward boundary maps. For other former municipalities, wards are defined on the relevant map in the Atlas of the Suburbs of Sydney.
What suburbs do assessment books cover?
The City of Sydney rates and assessment books cover the original boundaries of the City of Sydney.
Each book refers to one ward and most refer to one year only. Maps showing city boundaries and ward boundaries since 1842 are available online. You will need to consult these maps to identify the relevant ward where your street is located. You need to be armed with this information before you can search the assessment books. We also recommend you read the Guide – City of Sydney Assessment Books to understand how the search functionality works.
The City Archives also holds partial records of the assessments and rates books for the former municipalities (pre-1949) now within the City of Sydney. These are being progressively digitised and are accessed through Archives & History Resources:
You currently cannot search across these records and must drill down in each relevant ward volume and browse to find the street and property.
What time period do assessment books cover?
The City of Sydney was incorporated in 1842. Property assessments in the city and surrounding municipalities were carried out from 1845 until 1948. After 1948, the NSW Valuer General's Department took over the task of assessing property value.
A small number of the City assessment books have not survived. A table summarising the City wards and years where volumes are available provides a useful overview of the series and quick access to the transcripts. The historic ward boundaries also allow you to drill down to a particular volume by ward and assessment year.
As noted above, rates and valuation records of other former municipalities are partial.
What’s in the assessment books?
Assessment books usually contain the following information, usually divided into columns. Here are some tips about what this information means and how it was gathered:
- An assessment book number – A property often did not receive the same number in successive assessments. In most books the numbers begin with “1” but for a few years the City used a single sequence of numbers across all books created for a single assessment.
- Situation – The term used for street name – usually written vertically on the left-hand side of the page.
- Street number – These were not generally in use in the City before the mid 1870s. Where present they are usually recorded for one side of the street at a time. All of the odd numbers will be together, and all of the even numbers will be together. See below for a discussion on the problems associated with street number changes.
- House name – These were not recorded in any systematic way. It seems to have depended very much on the assessor. They are more likely to appear in later books.
- Ratepayer’s name – Until 1879, rates were usually paid by whoever was responsible for paying the rent on a property. After 1879, the ratepayer could be the owner or the tenant. Surnames are sometimes spelled differently in different assessments.
- Owner’s name – When the owners’ or ratepayers’ names change, the original entry is often crossed out and the new details written in.
- Property description – Usually limited to house, cottage, hotel, shop, or factory. The Sydney Incorporation Act 1842 specified the categories of buildings as “house, warehouse, counting house or shop”. These limitations can be frustrating, especially if one suspects a property may have had a use that is not recorded, for example as a lodging-house.
- Building materials – A short description of the materials used in the house and the roof such as stone, brick or wood for the house, and slate, iron or shingles for the roof.
- Number of storeys and rooms – This can change from one assessment book to the next. For example in successive years the same property can be described as having 2 floors, then 3 floors, then 2 floors again. It is possible that some assessors counted basements and attics as floors and rooms while others did not. In some cases the changes will reflect actual construction work, and this could be reflected in a significant change in the value of the property.
- Annual value – Expressed in pounds. The assessed value of the property used to set the rates payable by the owner or occupier.
- Comments – Contains a wide variety of remarks. Some assessors comment on the dilapidated state of the property or note that there is a kitchen or stables at the back. Sometimes they note when a property is pulled down.
Using assessment books
Within each book assessments are arranged street by street, then building by building, within each street. They are not arranged alphabetically by the names of owners or ratepayers, nor by street name.
The organisation of the assessment books reflects how they were compiled by the assessors when they hit the pavement. Assessors usually started at the northern or western end of a street and walked along the right hand side of the street from ward boundary to ward boundary. They then returned to their starting point and walked along the left hand side of the street. Vacant land was recorded as well as buildings, and any non-through laneways were to be assessed when they came to them. Lanes did not always have an official name. As a result, unnamed lanes often appeared in the assessment books as ‘1 off’, ‘2 off’ and so on, recorded as running off a main street.
Some volumes contain supplementary assessments, updating changes made in the following years prior to the next assessment. Where a supplementary assessment has been carried out, there will be a note in the remarks column with a reference to a later assessment number. The supplementary assessments, found at the end of the volume, usually record changes in ownership, major alterations or demolitions. In some cases, they will describe the property as vacant land.
Note: Supplementary assessments have not been transcribed into the online database, so they cannot be searched by keywords.
Because assessments were carried out only every 3 to 5 years on average, there probably won’t be a specific assessment for exactly the date you wish to research. In this case it is best to start at the next assessment and work backwards. This also helps clarify and overcome problems with street number changes, which are discussed below.
Research tips
If you are having difficulties finding a property, there are a number of things you can do:
- Check the City historic ward boundaries to ensure that you are looking at the correct ward and correct year – remember that ward boundaries change over time, and your property might be in a different ward in different years.
- Ensure the street existed and hadn't had its name changed. An online guide to City streets and the Sand’s Directory for the same year can help.
- Has the street number changed? Street renumbering happened frequently in the 19th century. To overcome this go to an assessment for a later date and work backwards towards the date where your research is focussed. The assessment books do not usually reflect changes by crossing out the old number and replacing it with the new one. If there are cross-streets shown, these can help. If you know the position of the property you are searching for in relation to a cross street, you should be able to find the same property again even if the street number has changed. You should also note the names of owners and occupants in neighbouring houses, as some of the names remain fairly constant. Recognising these patterns will usually help you to pinpoint a particular property where street numbers have changed.
There are some steps to help you if you can't find a particular person:
- The occupants of buildings were not always the ratepayers, and were therefore not recorded. Boarders, lodgers and sub-tenants, and family members other than the head of the family noted as the owner or occupier, were not normally recorded in the assessments. If people moved in and out of a property between assessments they will not be recorded. Spelling can be erratic.
- Gaps in the record such as these can sometimes be overcome by checking through Sand’s Sydney Directories (1858 to 1933, which are available at the Archives, and on microfiche in major public libraries.
Beyond the assessment books
Other records can be used to supplement information from the assessment books, or to cover the years after 1948. They are available at the City Archives.
- Sand's Sydney Directories (1858-1933) is useful, although it only lists one name per property, probably the name of the occupant.
- Dove's Plans of Sydney (1880) and the Fire Insurance Plans, (1916-1940s), show the City area block by block, including street numbers, and the names of buildings and businesses. These are available online in the Historical Atlas.
- City of Sydney Valuation Lists, 1949-1969 (AS-0031) record name and address of the owner/s only, changes in ownership, house names, dimensions of the property, and sale prices. These were compiled by the Valuer-General's Department.
- City of Sydney Valuation Books, 1974–1991 (AS-0052) record name and address of owners only, changes in ownership, sale prices and dimensions of property.