Property Reassessment

December 4, 2008

Assessment rulings to be mailed

County will send out appeal rulings made to date by next week, rather than wait.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Luzerne County officials have decided to mail another batch of formal assessment appeal rulings next week, rather than wait for one final mass mailing around the end of the year.

County officials won’t have a count on next week’s mailing until Monday. The goal is to release decisions on all hearings heard to date, including those heard today, said Tim Barr, of reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals Inc.

The rulings should be in the mail by Wednesday, he said.

The county issued 9,000 appeal rulings last month but said the rest would have to wait until all appeals are heard. The last appeal hearing is on Dec. 23.

An estimated 9,000 or more rulings must still be issued. Some property owners have been waiting for decisions since hearings in July, and they have criticized the county’s failure to include them in the first batch of notices, especially since they were originally told they’d have answers by Oct. 31.

Appeal board members had said that another interim mailing was not feasible because the computerized property database would have to be shut down for two days to process the mailing, which would hold up future hearings.

However, Barr said no residential appeals were scheduled for Friday or Saturday, which will allow computer downtime before appeals resume on Monday.

21st Century and appeal board members both support another mailing to lessen the wait for property owners and reduce the quantity of rulings in the final batch, Barr said.

The final mailing is now scheduled for Jan. 5, he said.

Property owners who receive their rulings next week will have 30 days after the mailing date of the ruling to file challenges to the county Court of Common Pleas. Court-level challenges start with mediation and then advance to arbitration and special master phases if necessary. The filing fee for mediation is $111.75 for each parcel being challenged.

The 9,000 property owners who received their appeal board rulings last month have until Friday to challenge their rulings to court.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 440 court challenges had been filed in the prothonotary’s office.

Deputy Prothonotary Elizabeth Decker stressed that property owners in the first batch must make sure they file court challenge paperwork in the prothonotary’s office by 4:30 p.m. Friday.

“It can’t have a postmarked date of Dec. 5. It has to be physically in the office and time-stamped on the 5th,” Decker said.

She is expecting an influx of challenges today and Friday.

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

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