When a value of real property changes from the previous year’s assessment, the Property Valuation Administrator is required to send the property owner a notice of change. When property owners disagree with the new assessed value, the first step in the appeals process is to schedule a conference with the Property Valuation Administrator or Deputy.
A property owner must schedule a conference prior to the end of the tax roll inspection period. This affords the property owners the opportunity to review all assessments for the current year. The tax roll inspection period is normally scheduled to begin the first Monday in May and continue for 6 days per week for the next two weeks and ends the third Monday in May. Sometimes this schedule may be adjusted if reassessment work in a particular county requires extra time.
The reassessment notices are mailed out prior to the beginning of the inspection period, annually. If the property owner wishes to discuss the assessment they can schedule a conference as soon as possible after the notice is received.
At the conference, the PVA or a designated Deputy will explain how the new assessment was derived. All information used in the reassessment should be presented to the property owner. The property owner must be prepared to show evidence to support their opinion of the value of their property.
Examples are:
Sales or assessment date from comparable properties.
Income and expense statements for the past three years.
Recent appraisals of the property.
Original construction cost of additions and improvements.
Insured value of the property.
Asking price if it has been recently offered for sale.
It is desirable that the conference between the property owner and PVA be in person but sometimes that is not feasible. In a case like this a conference can be permitted by telephone.
Usually disagreements are resolved at these conferences by the property owner understanding more about the assessment process and accepting it or the PVA accepting the decrease due to documentation provided by the property owner or discovering an error in the PVA records. When a conference does not end in agreement, the property owner can file and assessment appeal with the County Clerk’s office.