Property Reassessment

October 4, 2008

Crunch time for property appeals

Luzerne County will know soon if formal appeals must be heard beyond Oct. 31.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Luzerne County officials will know within a few days whether formal assessment appeals must be heard past Oct. 31, appeals board chairman Andy Shiner said Friday.

Appeals board solicitor David Schwager is researching whether the county would need court approval to hear appeals beyond Oct. 31, he said.

The county must give property owners a 20-day notice of appeal hearing dates.

As of Wednesday, the county had an estimated 4,900 remaining appeals to be scheduled.

With the 20-day notice, those hearings couldn’t be heard until Oct. 21 at the earliest. That means the county potentially has 4,900 appeals to be heard in 10 days before Oct. 31; Oct. 26 was not counted because appeals are not scheduled on Sunday.

County appeals boards have been hearing about 1,650 appeals per week, according to county officials.

But Shiner said county officials believe 3,000 or more property owners will withdraw formal appeals when the county mails official notice of about 15,000 informal review decisions next week. The decisions will be mailed Monday or Tuesday, said Tim Barr, of reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals Inc.

It’s tough to predict how many property owners in this mailing will cancel their formal appeals.

Most property owners already know what reduction or increase will arrive in the mail because they were informed of those amounts at the conclusion of their informal reviews. Many who accepted the amount opted not to file formal appeals as a result.

Still, some filed formal appeals as a precaution because they couldn’t get an informal review scheduled before the formal appeal filing deadline.

If the county can’t meet the Oct. 31 deadline, Shiner said he does not believe a “monumental” number of appeals would remain.

“It’s a numbers game. People on our auxiliary appeals boards are doing a great job. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Shiner said.

Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said it’s “too early to say” whether the county will make the Oct. 31 deadline.

“With the recent mailings we are anticipating thousands of formal appeal withdrawals,” Petrilla said.

The idea of continuing appeals past Oct. 31 without court approval surfaced recently, when Barr proposed the idea to county officials. While stressing he’s not a lawyer, Barr said sections of the law appear to allow adjustments and corrections up until the time new tax bills are mailed.

Barr said third-class county assessment law says appeals must be heard by Oct. 31, but general assessment law says boards may hear appeals at any subsequent time prior to the payment of the tax.

Shiner said that may mean the county can continue hearing appeals until tax bills are mailed around February. Petrilla said she supports an extension of formal appeals, if necessary, because more than $9 million has been spent on reassessment to date. Cancellation would mean much of the work would have to be redone because new notices must be sent. She estimates repeating the process will cost millions of dollars.

Minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he wants “everyone to get their day in front of the appeals board.”

Commissioner Greg Skrepenak wants to halt the reassessment indefinitely.

The county appeals board is required to annually certify or provide an official tally of assessed values by Nov. 15.

Shiner said that certification will be done, regardless of whether the appeals are completed. The county always continues to add properties and other amenities after the Nov. 15 certification in non-reassessment years, he said.

As of Wednesday, county appeals board members had heard or scheduled 13,600 formal assessment appeals.

Roughly 18,500 appeals have been filed.

Database update

Property owners often ask when reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals Inc. will update its online property assessment database because the information may be stale due to corrections and revisions.

21st Century representative Tim Barr said the site will be updated by Monday or Tuesday, when the county mails 15,000 assessment changes resulting from informal reviews.

Changes resulting from 3,193 revised notices will be loaded onto the site, Barr said.

The last update was around July 1, when the original notices were sent.

Property owners may access the site at www.courthouseonline.com. Property owners must enter the password printed on their assessment notices.

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