Chief assessor offers property owners advice about new assessments
Reiterating a point made many times, Fayette County’s chief assessor says property owners should ask one question about their new assessments: “Could I sell my property for that amount?” If the answer is yes, James A. Hercik, CPE, says you probably should be satisfied that the new figure is fair and accurate.
But if the answer is no, Hercik advises, you probably should file an appeal by the July 31 deadline.
While filing an appeal costs nothing and you can always withdraw the appeal later, Hercik urges people who want to appeal to forego the mail and hand deliver their appeal form. They can drop them off at either the Tax Assessment Office on the fourth floor of the courthouse or the reassessment office at 114 Oliver Square Plaza, located off Route 51 opposite the Ames Shopping Plaza.
Hercik said his office will accept mailed appeal forms as long as they are postmarked by July 31. However, with the deadline approaching in one week, he recommends the hand-delivered method.
Appeal forms are available on the reassessment project Web site – www.fayetteproperty.org – and can be obtained from any of the county’s tax collectors or either of the aforementioned county offices.
“We couldn’t have made them any easier to get,” Hercik said. “We’ve done everything we possibly can to make this an easy, taxpayer-friendly process.”
Although the one-page appeal form asks for several types of information – including the reason for your appeal and your claimed current market value of the property – Hercik said all that’s mandatory is that you date and sign the form.
The added information helps speed up the process, Hercik said. He reminds property owners to focus on the fair market value of the property and not on the amount of taxes that they must pay.
“We don’t want people to be confused that they are appealing their tax increase or decrease,” Hercik said. “When they come in (for an appeal), the board will be taking testimony on fair market value, not the amount of change in taxes.”
By its very nature, the county’s first reassessment since 1958 was designed to level out the tax burden in a way reflective of current market values. It was well publicized going in that some property owners would see increases, some would see decreases and others would stay about the same.
Hercik said his staff has been assisting property owners with filing appeals and obtaining related information since the new values went into effect July 1. He said that for the standard county copying fee of 50 cents per page, property owners can get their property record cards and the list of five comparable property sales used to justify their new assessments.
“We have had our assessors sitting down with taxpayers every day since July 1, answering questions. And we have a person who worked for CLT (Cole Layer Trumble) who’s doing the same thing,” Hercik said. “We’ve been printing property record cards for taxpayers; we’ve been printing, handing out and mailing the five comparable properties that CLT used to do the market value approach.”
Further information can be obtained by calling the reassessment office at 724-434-5030 or the Fayette County Tax Assessment Office at 724-430-1350.