By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
Letters will be sent to all Princeton property owners in the coming weeks, listing the true market value of their property as a result of this year’s joint revaluation process.
Ernie DelGuercio Sr., CEO of Appraisal Systems Inc., reported on the status of the revaluation to a joint meeting of the Princeton Borough Council and Princeton Township Committee on Monday night.
The letters for borough properties will be mailed next week and in the next two weeks for township properties, he said. The assessment will be as of Oct. 1 for use in the 2010 tax year.
The Princetons were ordered by the Mercer County Board of Taxation to conduct a revaluation for the 2010 tax year. The last property revaluation in the Princetons occurred in 1996.
A year ago, at the outset of the process, Mr. DelGuercio reported to the governing bodies that the factors in determining need for a revaluation include the number of years since the last one and the ratio of assessment to sales, he said.
A town where homes assessed at $200,000 sell for $400,000 has an assessment ratio of 50 percent, he said. Princeton Township’s assessment ratio is 47.45 percent, and Princeton Borough’s is 40.3 percent, he said last year.
”Residential properties in general have not increased or have shown a decrease since 2005, and they have been dropping in value,” Mr. DelGuercio said Monday night. “They’ve been dropping at a greater rate than commercial and industrial properties.”
The state constitution requires all properties to be valued at 100 percent of their true market value, and all properties valued by the same standard, Mr. DelGuercio said.
He encouraged property owners who disagree with the new assessment to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with a representative from the company as will be noted on the letters. The one-on-one interviews will be held locally, Monday through Saturday, during normal business hours and evening hours.
”All revaluation does is ensure that everyone is paying their fair share,” Mr. DelGuercio said. “No more and no less.”
He emphasized the revaluation process is “transparent,” and property owners will have access to all information that was used in determining their assessment.
An internal and external inspection process of properties, recent individual sales and an evaluation of neighborhood characteristics and market trends all were factored into the final assessment.
To this point, the company has entered 90 percent of properties and expects to enter 95 percent of properties by the end of the process, Mr. DelGuercio said. In the coming months, the company will respond to requests to inspect the inside of properties that have not yet been entered, he said.
The key factors that contributed to the value of a property will be available at the interviews as well as on the company’s Web site, www.asinj.com, as the letters are mailed.
”We encourage all to avail themselves of this process so that everyone will be confident that the right information was used to determine value and that the assessment is in fact fair and equitable,” Mr. DelGuercio said.
Property owners also will be able to share any information they feel has an impact on the value that hasn’t been considered, he added.
Also on the company’s Web site, property owners will be able to determine what the revaluation means in terms of their taxes, using a calculator, he said.
Borough Councilman David Goldfarb said property owners should be encouraged to take advantage of the interview process. And if property owners still are unsatisfied, they should be encouraged to meet with the assessor before filing a formal appeal, which carries the risk of a cross appeal, he said.
”This is sort of the once-every-decade opportunity for people to sit down and get some real interaction about their assessment,” he said.
Mr. DelGuercio discussed options property owners have if they would like to file an appeal on their assessment with the county or state.
Property owners will have until May 1 to file an appeal with the county Board of Taxation. The deadline is delayed from the normal April 1 deadline for municipalities that have just undergone a full revaluation.
If property owners are unsatisfied with the judgment from the county, they can file an appeal with the state tax court within 45 days. The case then can go to the appellate division where no new evidence can be examined.
Appeals have made it to the state Supreme Court though very few residential properties, Mr. DelGuercio said.
If the property owner is unsatisfied by this year’s process, an appeal can be filed again next year, he said.
ksnodgrass
@centraljersey.com
