Property Assessment - Revisited

A few weeks ago I wrote about our surprisingly successful effort to get our property reappraisal reconsidered. The Equalization Board is still at it, working on last year's appraisals, STILL.

As Gloucester's Board of Equalization nears the end of its work to rectify mistakes made to recent real estate assessments, the owners of nearly 400 properties are already seeking Circuit Court relief, said an at-large county supervisor.

The statement by Michelle Ressler was made during an informational meeting attended by about 30 people Monday night. She said 398 county properties are the subject of Circuit Court appeals contesting property appraisals by Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal that were reviewed by the board of equalization.

County attorney Bill Stuck said Circuit Court appeals could be filed for three years after the board concludes its work in December.

In Blue Ridge's 2006 appraisals, countywide property values increased by about 80 percent on average and as much as 400 percent in some cases. The appraisals have been the subject of repeated complaints since early this year.

The equalization board has until Dec. 31 to complete the reviews intended to fix discrepancies in property values.

Ressler said more than 7,300 Blue Ridge assessments have been scheduled for review since March. So far, those reviews have reduced countywide private property assessments by $36 million, while increasing commercial property assessments by $99 million, she said.

George Woodhouse, chairman of the Board of Equalization, said the board would also review 528 commercial properties where functional problems that weren't addressed - such as limited access - caused property values to be unduly increased. Those properties will see value reductions by 30 percent or more, he said.

Once the board is finished, the Gloucester Board of Supervisors will have to decide how to handle court challenges.

Stuck, the county attorney, said Gloucester could not ask the court for a blanket nullification of the reassessments. Instead, each appeal to the Circuit Court must be heard individually, he said, answering a resident's question about whether a class action lawsuit was feasible.

Ressler said the county has hired a property assessor and will no longer use an outside contractor for the work. County officials have also decided to reduce the span between assessments from every four years to every two years, she said.