Average numbers file appeals
The thousands of Fayette County property owners whose assessed values were slated to go down if a new countywide reassessment was implemented next year have apparently opted not to file requests seeking to have their current values lowered. Today marks the deadline for property owners to file yearly appeals, and barring a rush of last-minute appeals, there will be an average number of appeals requests this year.
James A. Hercik, the county’s chief assessor, said Monday that the number of property assessment appeals is hovering around 300, which is the same as in a “normal, non-reassessment year.”
“I had expected to get a lot more,” Hercik said.
He added that because postcards were sent to thousands of people informing them that their property values were supposed to go down, he had assumed that the assessment office would have heard from them, but so far it hasn’t.
Last month, the county commissioners halted implementation of a reassessment project just prior to the appeals deadline, citing concerns about the instability of the housing market, the state of the economy and the large percentage increases to some property values.
There were 13,100 property owners that had appealed the new values, but because the appeals process did not continue, it is unknown how many would have followed through on the appeals. Hercik previously said that about 20 percent of those who file appeals do not complete the process.
When the three-year project was halted, the assessment office again began accepting appeals to property values that will keep the 2001 base year, instead of going to the 2008 base year that would have occurred if the project were put in place.
According to a sheet from the assessment office, of the county’s 77,280 taxable parcels of land, the value of 19,636 of them, or 25.4 percent, was slated to go down or stay the same.
Hercik previously said that in any given year the number of yearly appeals that are filed is between 300 and 400.
The hearings on the appeals will begin on Sept. 29, and will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays each week until their completion in October, Hercik said.
Hercik said all appeals hearings would be held at the reassessment project office at 253 S. Mount Vernon Ave. in Uniontown.
The independent assessment appeals board includes John Rogish, Lloyd Moser and Odilia “Dee” John.
Although the commissioners voted to not implement the reassessment on Jan. 1, they have directed Hercik to keep two databases of property values, the current one and the one of the scuttled project, until further notice. The state Legislature has enacted a one-year study on how reassessments are handled throughout Pennsylvania, and that study is scheduled to conclude next June.
Prior to the reassessment project that took effect in Fayette County in 2003, there hadn’t been one done in the county since 1958. There is currently no legislation that requires periodic reassessments.
Information on filing an appeal can be found online at www.fayetteproperty.org or by calling the assessment office at 724-430-4028.