Scoring a success the second time

Jim Nelligan wasn’t giving up until his property assessment matched his appraisal, and he finally scored a victory at mediation.

Nelligan recently negotiated a settlement with Luzerne County Appeals Board Solicitor David Schwager to value his Harveys Lake property at $370,000, almost half of the original $712,200 that had been set by reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals Inc.

The county appeals board had lowered the assessment to $539,900, but Nelligan challenged that value through court-level mediation because it still wasn’t close enough to his $370,000 appraisal.

“I hung in there, and I’m satisfied. I hope other people can reach an agreement and be that satisfied,” Nelligan said.

A review of publicly filed mediation settlements shows mediation is working to property owners’ advantage.

Assessment reductions have been negotiated on all but two of the 182 properties that went through mediation since mid-February, the filings show.

These property owners obtained a combined $10.8 million in value reductions on their homes, businesses and vacant lots. That boosts the total reductions to $14.7 million on 225 settlements since mediation got under way in December.

The property owners who didn’t receive reductions still signed off on the mediations, allowing the county to boast a 100 percent mediation success rate to date.

The largest single residential mediation award to date was a $364,900 reduction on a Sugarloaf Township property.

21st Century valued the Kisenweather Road property at $988,200 – $201,000 for the 34 acres and $787,200 for a 4,200-square-foot brick home, a horse barn and machine shed.

The county assessment appeals board reduced the total to $864,900, and the property owner challenged that ruling to court.

The mediation settlement signed by the property owner and county reduced the total to $500,000 – $120,000 for the land and $380,000 for the buildings. The property owner, Juliann Salnicky, could not be reached for comment Friday.

The largest non-residential reduction – $976,600 – was for Woodbryn Associates of Shamokin, which owns town home apartments on 10.24 acres in Wright Township.

21st Century originally valued the property at $1.8 million, and the county assessment appeals board upheld that decision.

The mediation settlement knocked $3,500 off the land and $973,100 from the building, for a new total of $840,000.

The second largest mediation reduction – $975,600 – went to David C. Ashler of California, who owns the Uni-Mart on South Mountain Boulevard in Fairview Township.

21st Century had valued the property at $1.7 million, and the value was upheld by the appeals board. The mediation settlement kept the land value the same but reduced the building to $582,000, for a new total of $750,000.

Justification for reductions isn’t made public because mediations are treated as confidential settlement discussions, unlike county assessment appeal hearings that are open to the public.

Schwager reiterated Friday that both he and the county assessor’s office thoroughly review all settlement offers to make sure reductions are warranted. Mediation allows a third and sometimes fourth examination of a property because the values have already passed through the reassessment company, a formal appeal and possibly an informal review, he said.

“When we have 2,000 mediations it’s a lot, but by and large more attention can be paid to each individual appeal,” Schwager said. “We think we’re getting as close as possible to the fair market value of these properties.”

Property owners paid a $111.75 fee to get to mediation. Publicity about the mediation reductions may frustrate property owners who didn’t go through the process, but Schwager stressed that property owners may file assessment appeals any year.

Taxing bodies will have to compensate for tax revenue lost from mediation settlements. For example, the $10.8 million in reductions granted since mid-February will cost the county about $49,000 in tax revenue. That amount will increase because more than 1,700 mediations must still be processed.

Nelligan’s school, county and local property taxes will double with his new value, to an estimated $5,000. He said he can live with that but not the quadrupling of taxes under the original assessed value.

He emphasized that he didn’t coast to his new value by simply handing in an appraisal and paying the fee.

“I was extremely well prepared. I had GIS maps, work permits and contracts, topographical maps and photographs galore,” Nelligan said.

He even set up props on his land and photographed them to prove the lot had a steep grade. Nelligan estimates he spent more than $1,000 on the appraisal, documentation and other expenses.