Owners not satisfied with recommended value have until Feb. 10 to meet with Certified Valuations and until April 1 to file an appeal with the county Board of Taxation
By John Tredrea
Hopewell Township officials and residents were less than enthusiastic Monday night about the rate of progress Certified Valuations reported in its ongoing revaluation of the township properties.
Ordered by the county, the purpose of the revaluation is to bring the assessed valuation of properties into conformity with their market values. Based in Randolph, Certified also is doing revaluations for Pennington and Hopewell boroughs.
At Monday night’s Township Committee meeting, Cindy Sullivan of Certified Valuations summarized her firm’s work to date in the township and fielded questions and comments from committee members and residents.
Generating the most concern by far was Ms. Sullivan’s statement that Certified has thus far notified by mail 3,000 of 7,200 township property owners of the assessed value Certified will recommend for their properties. Owners not satisfied with that recommended value have until Feb. 10 to meet with Certified, and until April 1 to file an appeal with the county Board of Taxation. Ms. Sullivan said a typical meeting between Certified and a property owner would last about 15 minutes.
Noting that over half the letters containing the recommended assessed value have yet to be sent and that "January is a short month" due to the holidays, Committeeman David Sandahl said to Ms. Sullivan: "That’s pretty tight time-wise." Mr. Sandahl was concerned that residents might not have time to schedule a meeting with Certified by the time they get their letter.
"Agreed," said Deputy Mayor Mark Iorio.
"Feb. 10 is tough," resident Sophia Pedersen chided Ms. Sullivan. "We haven’t even received a letter yet."
Ms. Sullivan expressed confidence Certified would get the revaluation done in a timely and equitable manner. She said residents one of whom is Ms. Pedersen who will be out of town in the weeks ahead and who still have not received their letters can call Certified or the township tax assessor for a status report. Certified can be reached at (973) 361-2700.
Ms. Sullivan said the letter from Certified to each property owner bears the words "Important Tax Information Enclosed" on the bottom of the envelope. This is intended to prevent recipients from discarding the letter by mistake. "We know that people get a lot of junk mail," Ms. Sullivan said.

