by Ed Naile
Of all the people in Bedford NH, the assessing firm that just completed the revaluation there thought it could get away with – are you ready for this – listing the paved driveway at a CNHT Director’s home (Webmistress of the Dark) as… an outbuilding!
CNHT has been following several assessing firms from Unity to Lancaster, Winchester, Deering and beyond only to find out how shoddy their work is and how some firms simply ignore state laws called Administrative Rules. (REV. 600)
I went to a hearing last fall in Lancaster where we worked with the taxpayer group there starting in February of 2004 (linked on our site) and discovered the contracted, paid, and gone, assessing firm left no revaluation data manual behind, as required by REV 600, to prove their model for reappraisal.
At the hearing, people were told by the DRA that they could not file an abatement from taxes generated by use of the new re-val because the March 1 deadline had passed. I argued that the assessing firm left no manual or maps by which to determine the validity of the data on their cards. I was told that did not matter ‘the law was the law.’
So the law is the law for taxpayers but not assessing firms?
Here is the law for assessment cards. See if you can figure out how to measure a paved driveway and list it as an outbuilding……..legally.
REV 603:14
(c) The appraisal company shall prepare property record cards, as follows:
(1) Each card shall be 8-1/2 x 11 inches, for each separate parcel of property in the municipality;
(2) The cards shall be so arranged as to show:
a. The owner’s name, street number, or other designation of the property;
b. The owner’s mailing address; and
c. All information necessary for determining the:
1. Land value;
2. Land classification;
3. Value of the buildings on the land;
4. Descriptive information of the buildings;
5. Pricing detail;
6. Depreciation allowed for physical, functional and economic factors; and
7. An outline sketch of all principal buildings on the parcel;
(3) Any coding used by the company on the card shall be clearly explained in writing elsewhere on the card or on an attachment thereto; and
(4) The name of the employee associated with the inspection history for the property shall be on each appraisal record card;
If the assessing firm is using a code in which paved driveways are to be listed as outbuildings then it should say so. That is what the law says.
Of course, if you have outbuildings and paved driveways it must be anyone’s guess as to the value. Or maybe that is the point. We hope not because this only brings into question how other values are arrived at on residential homes, neighborhoods, commercial, industrial and other properties.
NH is going through an enormous change in assessing due to the unconstitutional Claremont ruling where some towns share in what they can get from other towns. Every taxpayer has to pay close attention to their own assessment and the assessment of their community as well. CNHT is the only organization looking out for taxpayers statewide.
You can help CNHT by looking for problems with your assessing firm and calling us if you find inconsistencies.
Joining CNHT wouldn’t hurt either.