Property Reassessment

September 6, 2008

100 file formal assessment appeals on old values, officials say

Filings made in case county postpones reassessment, assessor’s office says.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Roughly 100 Luzerne County property owners have filed formal assessment appeals on their old values in case the county delays reassessment, the assessor’s office said Friday.

Property owners had until Sept. 1 to file appeals on their old assessed values.

The old values will remain in effect next year if the county puts off the reassessment, though county commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Stephen A. Urban have not voted to delay.

Petrilla said earlier this week there are no plans to vote to delay at the Sept. 17 commissioner meeting. Though she does not anticipate a reassessment postponement, Petrilla has said property owners who believe they are overassessed are welcome to file appeals before Sept. 1 if they don’t want to take any chances.

Appeals on the old assessed values must be heard by Oct. 31, which is the same deadline for appeals on the new assessed values that had been mailed before July 1. However, the appeals board may ask the court for a 30-day extension to hear appeals.

Overassessed property owners started contacting the county assessor’s office in August about filing formal appeals on their old assessed values in light of a push by some property owners to halt or cancel the reassessment.

Tony Alu, the county’s assessment director, has warned that property owners shouldn’t presume their old values were too high just because the reassessment indicates they were overassessed and worthy of a property-tax decrease.

“It just means with a new equal playing field that their taxes should go down. Their assessment from 1965 may not be an overassessment,” Alu has said.

County Appeals Board Chairman Andy Shiner has said property owners appealing their old values must focus on other old assessed values to make their case. Information prepared as part of the reassessment has no bearing on the old values, he said.

County officials have estimated a reassessment delay would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars because the county would have to mail new values next year. The law requires notice of values by July 1 in the year before the values take effect. The values would likely have to be updated with new sales data, and a fresh mailing would require a new round of formal appeals.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

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