Property Reassessment

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Luzerne County property owners who are still dissatisfied with their new assessments may file appeals in 2009 – or any year for that matter.

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County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he wants to stress that option because some property owners have complained that they missed appeal deadlines during last year’s countywide reassessment.

Dozens of property owners have already filed appeals for this year, according to the county assessor’s office. County officials have predicted another influx of appeals this year from property owners who opted to hold off.

Roughly 21,874 property owners filed appeals last year because of the reassessment. Additional auxiliary appeal boards were appointed because of the reassessment, but this year the three-person permanent appeals board must hear all appeals.

About 1,000 appeals are typically filed in non-reassessment years.

The reductions granted on appeals filed this year won’t take effect until 2010. These property owners must pay their 2009 school, county and municipal property taxes based on the contested assessment.

Property owners have until Sept. 1 to file appeals this year, and the appeals are supposed to be heard by Oct. 31.

Property owners may use the new assessed values of similar properties in their neighborhoods as evidence that their values should be reduced.

Appeals Board Chairman Andy Shiner said property owners who are obtaining certified appraisals for their appeals should make sure they are based on the property’s value on Jan. 1, 2008, which is the base year of the reassessment. The appraisers would then use comparable sales from 2004 through 2007.

Shiner said the board can’t focus on a property’s current worth because real estate market changes that have occurred since Jan. 1, 2008 must be considered in the next reassessment. It wouldn’t be fair to weigh real estate market changes for some property owners when the rest of the values are tied to the reassessment base year, he said.

“That would be comparing apples and oranges,” Shiner said.

County commissioners plan to conduct reassessments every four years. The State Tax Equalization Board also compares property sales to assessments annually to determine if assessments are reflective of the real estate market, he said. That report will help county officials determine whether the reassessment values have become stale.