Add This Exercise to the Routines to Follow Before Completing the Reassessment Process
Imagine yourself sitting before the Board of Equalization or Board of Assessment Review and hearing the various cases brought forward in astonishing detail for each type of property in your community. Now imagine the Board wrapping up its cases for the year and adjourning. As though in hind-sight write out your responses to the following questions:
- Could specific public relations efforts have addressed some of the issues raised as part of the hearings and perhaps even have eliminated some of the appeals? For example, could a mailing or online notice have explained how property transfers as a result of foreclosures were considered by your office have saved telephone calls or appeals? Could reminder letters to the owners of income-producing properties have brought in more income and expense statements to support rental rates, vacancies, and operating expenses?
- Could targeted presentations to the Board have addressed some of the issues raised as part of the hearings? In the past I have urge the Board to hold a public meeting each year that functions as an organizational meeting to discuss meeting dates and times, procedures, and protocols and to hear a presentation by the assessment office concerning changes in values for each class of property as a result of the reassessment. As part of this overview I stress the important valuation issues that I thought might come before the Board during their hearings. If your Board cannot hold a separate meeting ask them to set aside extra time before the first hearing for each major class of property where staff can present this same kind of overview. Ideally, the presentations would be mentioned in any public announcement of the Board meetings so that interested property owners could also attend.
- What valuation issues were hardest to defend before the Board? For example, if you envisioned a large number of owners of income-producing properties appealing their assessments, did you spend the appropriate amount of time before the completion of the reassessment supporting your positions relative to the rental rates, vacancies, and capitalization rates used? Similarly, were sales organized and summarized in a manner for ease of use by the Board?
- What evidence or information could you or your staff have developed prior to the hearings that could have helped your defense? For example, if you choose to follow specific procedures concerning the use of foreclosures or bank-owned property sales, did you document how you developed your procedure, perhaps from International Association of Assessing Officers guidance and talking to assessors in neighboring jurisdictions?
- Could various exercises or mock staff preparations have improved your ability to defend the assessments? Especially with president setting appeals you may have wanted to develop departmental positions that were consistent throughout the Board hearings. Having a 10 minute discussion before the hearing with the staff appraiser who will defend the assessment before the Board can be very productive. It is also helpful to develop standardized presentation documents for staff use before the Board (i.e., sales verifications, sales listings by property class, comparable assessments and comparable sales spreadsheets, etc.).
These are only a few ideas as your visualization may be quite different depending upon your unique circumstances. This exercise can help you defend assessments for the upcoming reassessment as well as improve other assessment administration programs (i.e., data collection, public relations, Board relations, etc.) that lead up to the hearings.
Richard L. Sanderson
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