Property Reassessment

February 5, 2009

About 2,000 challenged assessments

Property owners must undergo mediation when they file challenges in court.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Around 2,000 Luzerne County property owners ended up challenging their assessed values to court, according to the prothonotary’s office.

Wednesday was the court-challenge deadline for the last batch of county assessment appeal board rulings mailed on Jan. 5.

As of 4:30 p.m., 1,973 challenges had been logged, though a few more were still trickling in.

Property owners must undergo mediation when they file court challenges. The county appeals board solicitor and property owner must both agree to the settlement amounts.

Settlements have been reached on 86 properties since mediation started the beginning of December.

Specialty Courts Director Sam Guesto, who oversees mediation, has said he expects to process about 20 cases per week. At this pace, mediation won’t wrap up until late summer or fall 2010.

Property owners must pay their taxes based on the contested values until they receive mediation settlements. Overpayments would then be reimbursed for 2009 and 2010, if applicable.

The court is scheduling conferences in the order in which the challenges were filed, which means property owners who filed challenges in recent weeks may not hear from the county for months.

The number of court challenges falls in line with expectations. County Assessment Director Tony Alu had estimated early last year that 2,000 county appeal board rulings will be challenged at the county court level, although others were predicting as many as 5,000.

Roughly 17,900 county assessment appeals board rulings had been issued, which means 11 percent opted to advance to the next level.

Mediation has resulted in some significant reductions. A total of $2.59 million was knocked off the first 56 properties. The largest reduction in this group was $346,500 on a three-bedroom, 4,834-square-foot home in the Ice Ponds section of Rice Township, which saved the property owner an estimated $4,600 in annual taxes.

Most of the court challenges have been filed by residential property owners, though some commercial properties are in the mix.

For example, Target Corp. is challenging the appeal board’s value of $10.5 million for its Wilkes-Barre Township store. The reassessment company’s original value was $15.4 million.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is contesting the board’s $9.8 million value on its Sam’s Club store in Wilkes-Barre Township. The original value was $12.56 million.

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