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Questions About Fayette County's
Revaluation Who is conducting the revaluation project? Will all properties be revalued, even those that were recently appealed? How will CLT gather information about Fayette County real estate? Do I have to let the data collector in my house? How will I know if the information CLT collects is accurate? Will the data verification mailer tell me what my new assessment will be? I recently built a new home. Will the construction costs be considered? Will my taxes go up? Questions about Fayette County's Revaluation Why is Fayette County conducting a property revaluation project? There has not been a countywide mass appraisal in Fayette County since 1958. Over the years, market conditions have changed, improvements have been made to existing homes, and new homes have been built. All of these factors affect the value of a home. After all that time, valuations for two similar homes in the same neighborhood can vary by thousands of dollars, although their worth on the market is basically the same. One homeowner could be paying more property tax, even though his neighbor has a house with the same value. Pennsylvania law requires that property assessments be uniform and produce equitable taxes. Who is conducting the revaluation project? After much research and an extensive bid process, Fayette County hired Cole Layer Trumble Company (CLT) to conduct the revaluation project. Founded in 1938, CLT is the world’s oldest and largest mass appraisal firm. CLT has more than 400 employees in regional and project offices around the country. The project is employing data collectors, photographers, clerks, appraisers, computer programmers and supervisors. Many of these employees have been hired from our local area. CLT has completed over 2,500 programs in 46 states and several Canadian provinces. In the past five years, the company has completed revaluation projects involving over one million parcels of real estate in Pennsylvania.
Will all properties be revalued, even those that were recently appealed? Yes. Data collectors and certified Pennsylvania evaluators will visit every property in the county - that’s nearly 78,000 parcels. The fact that a property owner may recently have had an assessment changed through an appeal proceeding does not affect the tax equalization process. That property will be evaluated along with the rest of the county.
How will CLT gather information about Fayette County real estate?
Data
collectors will go door-to-door and will record property characteristics
for the county’s 78,000 tax parcels. Data collectors will knock on each
door and ask to make an interior and exterior inspection of the property
and check its measurements. No. If it is not convenient to allow the data collector inside, you may answer a few questions at the door. The overall quality of the information will be enhanced if a data collector is able to see both the inside and outside, however. Some interior conditions are not apparent from the outside. If you are not home, the data collector will measure the outside of the buildings and will leave a postcard door hanger at your door. Simply complete this form and mail it to the pre-printed address.
Data collectors will not ask to enter a home if no adult is present.
If you do not allow an interior inspection and you do not complete the postcard door hanger, the data collector will estimate the inside features based on existing county records and similar surrounding properties.
How will I know if the information CLT collects is accurate? After
the data collector’s visit, owners will receive a printed property report
in the mail. This "data verification mailer" will list all of the information
gathered by CLT. Owners will be asked to review the information, make
any changes necessary, and then mail or fax the corrections back to CLT. Will the data verification mailer tell me what my new assessment will be? No. New assessments will not be calculated until all data collection is completed. All property owners will be notified of their new assessments in February and March 2002. I recently built a new home. Will the construction costs be considered? Your construction cost is a historical figure that may or may not reflect the current market value of your property. It is only one element that will be considered.
The taxes of some residents will go up, some will go down, and some will stay the same.
Once all of the taxing groups—school boards, the county, and municipalities—know the total for the new property values, they will have to adjust their tax rates (millage) so that the total they collect is no more than 5% (for the school districts it’s 10%) greater than the previous year. For example, this means that if all property values to up 10 times, tax rates have to come down 10 times. If the values of most of the other properties in your area go up the same amount as your property, your taxes should remain about the same.
You won’t know how the revaluation will affect the property tax you owe until each taxing group refigures its tax rate based on the changes in value for all of the properties within its boundaries. This won’t happen until the end of 2002.
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