Property Assessment

Important Property Tax Information - Portland Oregon Metro Area

 

 

Greater Portland Property Assessment Update - November 2015

Property Assessment Update is an occasional service to corporate asset managers, accountants and finance officers, independent certified public accountants, property managers and tax agents, and membership organizations.

• November 2 Clackamas County, Oregon, Appraisal plan due to Oregon Department of Revenue (ODOR)
• November 16 Clackamas County, Oregon, first trimester tax payment due for 2015-2016 year
• November 16 Columbia County, Oregon, first payment due for 2015-2016 year
• November 16 Washington County, Oregon, first tax payment due for 2015-2016 year
• November 17 Multnomah County, Oregon, first payment due for 2015-2016 year
• Property Tax Appeals in Oregon: A property owner can appeal the valuation of the property to the local Board of Property Tax Appeals. Petitions to the board must be filed between late October, when the tax statements are mailed, and December 31

No property assessment news to report for Clark County, Washington, and Skamania County, Washington, for this month.

For additional information for those who own or manage properties in the Portland Metropolitan Area, each of the seven counties that make up this area are listed below for your convenience. (As defined by the U. S. Office of Management and Budget as the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Also known as the Portland Metropolitan Area or Greater Portland.)

Greater Portland Metropolitan Area Property Tax Assessment Offices

Clackamas County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.clackamas.us/at/

Clark County, Washington, Department of Assessment

Department website: http://www.clark.wa.gov/assessor/index.html

Columbia County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.co.columbia.or.us/departments/assessors-office/assessors-home

Multnomah County, Oregon, Division of Assessment, Recording & Taxation (DART)

Department website: http://web.multco.us/assessment-taxation

Skamania County, Washington, County Assessor’s Office

Department website: http://www.skamaniacounty.org/assessor/

Washington County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.co.washington.or.us/AssessmentTaxation/index.cfm

Yamhill County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.co.yamhill.or.us/assessor

It’s Assessment Notice Time, But Are You Focused?

Getting This Right Can Be The Difference Between Success and Failure

So, you got your latest assessment notice. You’re surprised at the change in the assessment value and immediately start to look for comparable sales (comps) that will surely convince your local assessment office or appeal board how erroneous the new assessment is.

But wait! Make sure you are trying to solve the right problem before you take action. In the 30-plus years that I spent in property tax assessment administration, which included observing appeal board hearings, property owners and their agents who challenged assessments often failed to properly address three key areas before selecting comparable sales.

Effective Date of Valuation
Each assessment has an effective date of valuation. For example a 2015 assessment may have an effective date of valuation of January 1, 2015, or December 31, 2014. It is vitally important to determine the effective date of valuation as this is the date that your comparable sales must focus on. Too many times the assessment review date by the local assessor or appeal board is several months after the effective date of valuation. Property owners and their agents often file appeals by the filing deadline that include comparable sales right up to the filing date, which may be excluded as they are not focused on the correct effective date of valuation.

Study Period
In developing each assessment the local assessor has studied the real estate market for a period of time before the effective date of valuation in order to determine how market value, or other defined value, has changed since the last reassessment. Most assessors refer to this as the study period for the type or class of property being assessed. For example, before determining how assessed values for residential condominiums should change for the 2015 assessments, with an effective date of valuation of January 1, 2015, all valid sales of such properties during a two year period ending September 30, 2014, may have been considered (October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2014). The assessor may have further considered the trends and indications from this study period to project values to the January 1, 2015, effective date of valuation. Local assessors and appeal board often give considerable weight to the study period because their greatest concern is with fairness or uniformity of assessment than with accuracy.

Validity of Sales Data
Not every sale is an indicator of market value. Many assessors and appeal boards disqualify certain sales as invalid for assessment purposes. Often short sales and bank-owned property sales need to represent “prevailing market conditions” before assessors or appeal boards will consider them. You don’t want to spend a lot of time gathering comparable sales just to have them disqualified.

Taking Action
I hope the above explanation helps you focus on the right comparable sales. Call your local assessor or appeal board representative and ask them about these three important key areas before you take action. Local assessors and appeal boards are charged with the duty of informing you of your right to review or appeal the assessment. But it helps to know the right questions to ask. It saves time for everyone involved in the process.

EXTRA TIP: Don’t overload the assessor or appeal board with too many comps. Three to five well-chosen comps that address the three key areas above will usually be sufficient. 20 comps won’t impress unless you have also performed and shown your statistical analysis of these sales, not just printed them out and attached them to the appeal form.

 

Who Says You Can't Help City Hall

Collaborative Efforts Result in Win-Win Situation

We just completed a collaborative project with the seven counties that make up the Greater Portland Oregon Metropolitan Area and local real estate industry experts.  Since April 29 we have worked together on a list of government agency contacts who have important information that is used routinely by:

• Academics
• Asset managers
• Attorneys
• Builders
• Business owners
• Citizens
• Corporate tax managers
• Engineers
• Homeowners
• Insurance companies
• Potential homebuyers
• Real and personal property Appraisers
• Real estate brokers and agents
• Real estate investors
• Surveyors
• Tax agents and representatives
• Title insurance companies

A draft list was prepared early this year that followed the same theme used for a contact list for local government agencies in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area. The DC contact list was so popular with real estate professionals that we hope to repeat that success in Portland.

The draft list was then sent to all the affected local government agencies and departments, and they were asked for changes, comments, and general feedback during a 10 working day period.  After the agencies had a chance to collaborate, the draft contact list was distributed via social media to thousands of real estate professionals.

People in local government agencies and departments who are the curators of the following categories of real estate information for the Greater Portland Metropolitan Area are featured:

• Maps and/or Geographic Information System (GIS) data
• Personal property assessment information (assessed values, appeal procedures, and compliance information)
• Real estate assessment information (assessed values, appeal procedures, compliance information, and property specific data characteristics)
• Recordation information
• Tax billing information and property tax payment look up

The completed contact list is now available.  We are sure that this free publication will be a help to homebuyers, real estate professionals, and local governments who don't always have the staff to answer questions from callers.  The contact list is available by clicking here or by e-mailing me at [email protected] and including Portland OR MSA Guide in the subject line.

Collaborative Effort to Help Community of Practice in Portland Oregon

 

Those Who Use the Tools are the Best People to Ask Whether They Are Working

If you are in the Greater Portland (Oregon) area we need your help. We've just outlined a contact list for local government departments in the Greater Portland area who are the curators for real estate information most actively used by asset managers, attorneys, corporate tax mangers, homeowners, insurance companies, lenders, potential buyers, real estate agents and brokers, surveyors - you get the picture.

We are asking the community to give us feedback on what's missing, what can be cut out, how it could be better organized - basically, we want to produce a free information product that's designed by the client, not someone deciding what's best for the client.

If you would like to collaborate with us, click here to access the draft PDF document and let us know what you think. You can comment here on our blog or by contacting me through other social media that is shown in my blog profile.  If you reply via Twitter, please use the hashtag #PortlandREInfo.

Once we complete this project, keep the contact list handy so that you don't need to search the web each time you want to find real estate information from local government sources in Greater Portland. They will all be in one spot where you can access them or easily copy and paste them into an e-mail to a potential client.

You will also be able post this resource on your website.  All we'll ask is that you refer to the primary author and his web address as the source.

You May Qualify for Lower Property Taxes

What You Don't Know May Cost You

Taking a few minutes to understand if you qualify for property tax abatements or exemptions could save you money.  It's as simple as knowing what to look for on your local assessor's website and maybe a phone call to clarify whether you qualify.

Most people don't enjoy paying property taxes.  Realizing this many states have taken steps to reduce the burden of property taxes.  While you may think this is a modern political maneuver, property tax exmeptions go back at least to 1290 when qualifications for exemptions were imposed in England.

Awareness

In order to take advantage of potential ways of lowering your property taxes you have to be aware that such programs exist.  Some assessors do a good job of informing taxpayers of these programs, but assessment office staffing and their ability to distribute this information is not always adequate.

Often the availability of these programs are briefly mentioned on assessment notices or tax bills that are already crowded with information and requirements.  Because local governments have tight budgets the assessor can't make a separate mailing just to notify taxpayers of available ways to get tax reductions.

One of the other difficulties is the fact that methods of property tax abatements or exemptions vary from state to state, and even from community to community within a state.  So it's important to know what your local taxing district offers.  A partial list of the different types of tax reductions include:

• Abatements (usually the result of an application for exemption or outcome of appeal)
• Appeals (informal first level review process or formal challenge to an appeal board)
• Classification (corrections to property classification type can result in reductions)
• Credits (typically the result of a corrected assessment or tax refund)
• Deferral (delayed payment of taxes until the property is sold or title passes)
• Exemptions (qualifying for full or partial tax exemption, like the homestead exemption on a primary residence)
• Incentives (where assessments or taxes are lower as an incentive to certain property owners; also see use assessments)
• Rebates (see rent abatement)
• Refunds (return of a portion of property taxes paid either through the local or state income tax system)
• Relief (tax relief to people who meet certain qualifications like age, disability, or service in the armed forces)
• Rent abatement or rebate (usually a state program that provides for a personal income tax credit to renters)
• Tax incentive zones (specially designated commercial, industrial, retail, or similar areas that qualify as enterprise zones)
• Use assessments (lower assessments and taxes that reflect the continued use of a property for a specified purpose like farmland or open space)

Of course your taxing district may not have all of the programs listed above.  For example most states have homestead exemptions on the primary residence of qualifying owners, but some do not.

In some states the League of Women Voters or AARP chapter may do a good job of informing people of the reductions they may qualify for in their state.  But tax laws can change each year as a result of legislative actions at the state or local level.

A Word of Caution

Every year scams are reported where taxpayers, especially senior citizens, are the victims of individuals or companies claiming that they will represent them or get a tax reduction on their behalf.  There are, of course, reputable individuals, attorneys, and companies that assist property owners with these programs, especially with complex appeals and exemption applications.

Always ask for a written list of services that are being performed.  And always call your local county or city assessors office to ask what is required to file an application or to challenge an assessment.  Generally all applications for deferral, exemption, and rent rebates can be filed at no cost, except your time to complete the form.  Most applications for informal and formal appeals can be filed without cost or for a nominal filing fee.

Recommended Action

Make a visit to your local assessor's website and search for the terms listed above.  If after visiting the website it's unclear what tax reduction methods are available, or you need more information, call the assessor's office.

Most modern assessment offices have public relations and citizen outreach programs.  Take the first step toward understanding what is available to you as a property taxpayer in your community.  Who knows, you may just qualify for lower property taxes in the process.

And please send this e-mail to a family member or friend as they may also qualify to save money on their property taxes.