Should You Fill out the Residential Property Questionnaire when Filing an Abatement?

Upon receiving an abatement application, the Assessing Office will send out a package that includes a Residential Property Questionnaire. You should not fill out this questionnaire. What is the problem? Subjective rating are being put in the hand of the property owner who does not know how the assessors are applying these ratings. Your assessment can increase based on your input without you understanding how these ratings are applied. 

The subjective data includes the condition of the property, the grade of the property, the depreciation, and the ratings for the kitchen(s) and bathroom(s). The assessors use poor, fair, average, good, very good, excellent and superior to rank home fixtures. But what is this scale based on? We do not know; the assessing office has not create a policy to explain how these ratings are applied. 

Bring up the property record cards in your neighborhood and look at the ratings of the kitchen, baths, and property condition. Most property records cards will say average for the kitchens and baths. This rating level is not consistently being changed by the assessors when permits are opened for kitchen and bath upgrades. So, kitchens with custom cabinetry, double sinks and ovens, granite countertops are being rated as average.  I am not a fan of this rating system because without state required interior inspections, some property are being taxed for upgrades and others are not. 

Apparently, next fall, Vision Appraisal, the company hired to perform the Measure & List for the 2022 revaluation, will be sending out a questionnaire to assist in gathering data on the interior of homes. This questionnaire may be more complete, but it is not available at this time for viewing. 

The Videos below will show you how to print and read your property record card to check the overall information. Make corrections to these highlighted areas and don’t provide input on subjective data.

https://www.loom.com/share/78c6dc70519242e08ffe54cb83e5478e?sharedAppSource=personal_library

https://www.loom.com/share/bb0a224d79de4aafb2212362d8a8bd1f?sharedAppSource=personal_library