The results of the township-wide property revaluation will begin finding their way into property owners’ mailboxes starting in the first week of December, according to Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun.
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The results of the township-wide property revaluation will begin finding their way into property owners’ mailboxes starting in the first week of December, according to Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun.
The letter will state the new assessed value, Mr. Krawczun said. It will also contain the current assessed value and the current property tax. The letter will also explain what the property tax would have been for 2013 had the new assessed value been in effect, he said. The letter will not be an actual tax bill.
”This is the last stage in the (revaluation) process,” Mr. Krawczun said.
Once the letters have been mailed out, representatives of Professional Property Appraisers Inc., the firm that conducted the revaluation, will meet with property owners to discuss the new assessments over a three-week period in December.
Mr. Krawczun said property owners may set up appointments with the company representatives for weekday meetings, weeknight meetings or weekend meetings. The location of the meetings has not been finalized, but it will likely be held at one of the three firehouses.
In 2010, Lawrence Township was ordered to conduct a township-wide property revaluation by the Mercer County Board of Taxation — the first revaluation since 1993. State law requires all properties to be assessed at 100 percent of fair market value, which is defined as the price a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller.
When the ratio of assessed value to fair market value falls below 70 percent, a municipality may be ordered to conduct a revaluation. Lawrence’s ratio had ranged from 53.15 percent in 2007 to 50.96 percent in 2012.
Township Council awarded a $729,780 contract to Professional Property Appraisers, which is located in Delran, in September 2012. It was the lowest responsible bidder from among the five revaluation firms that submitted bids. Those bids ranged from as high as $1.02 million to $729,780.
Revaluations are conducted by municipalities to appraise all property — from vacant land to gas stations, shopping malls, bowling alleys and homes, township officials said.
The goal of a revaluation is to spread the tax burden equitably among all property owners. The owners of two properties that have essentially the same fair market value should pay essentially the same amount in property taxes.
Inequitable assessments are the result of changes in the characteristics in areas or neighborhoods, fluctuations in the economy, and changes in zoning which can either enhance or adversely affect value. Property owners who have successfully appealed their assessments also cause inequalities in a neighborhood. Some property owners appeal and others do not.
While a revaluation will affect each property’s assessment for property tax purposes, it does not mean that the taxes will increase on every property. Some properties are over-assessed and others are under-assessed. When the revaluation is completed, every property will be assessed at its fair market value.
For example, it is possible for three identical properties to have different assessments. One property is assessed at $125,000, another at $100,000 and another at $75,000. They are paying different amounts in property taxes — $5,611.25, $4,489 and $3,366.75. But when the revaluation process is completed, they will be assessed at $200,000 and the owners will pay the same amount in property taxes.
The new assessments will not result in a property tax windfall for the municipality because the township may only raise the amount of money that it needs to operate. The municipal budget is subject to a state-mandated cap on property tax rate increases.
Property owners should not assume that their post-assessment property tax bill will be based on the 2013 tax rate — which includes the school district and Mercer County — because it will adjusted downward to reflect the new values.