It is approaching real estate assessment appeal time again. The last filing date for Montgomery, Chester, Bucks, Lehigh and Delaware Counties is August 1, 2018. For Berks County the deadline is August 15, 2018. If you believe that your home, business location, rental property, or other real estate is over-assessed, the above dates are your deadlines to act. Additionally, those dates serve as deadlines for certain qualifying charitable organizations who may wish to file appeals to establish their exemption from local real estate taxes.
Annual appeals with the above deadlines are for the upcoming year (i.e. 2019). Thus, the results would affect your assessment and your tax bill for county and municipality purposes beginning January 1, 2019 and for school taxes purposes beginning July 1, 2019.
Note that the above deadlines will not apply to “interim” tax assessment appeals. That is an appeal of an interim tax assessment that comes out during the course of a year after an event such as the completion of new construction. The date for appealing an interim assessment is 40 days after the date of the change of assessment notice.
As noted before in this newsletter, Delaware is on the verge of a county-wide reassessment set to be effective in 2021. Given that any assessment in Delaware County is at this point “temporary” and the result of any assessment appeal would also be temporary; it would probably behoove Delaware residents to wait for the new value and avoid the cost and expense of an appeal at this time. This decision however, depends on the property owner’s particular facts.
If you have questions about your current assessment and how it relates to your property’s fair market value, please do not hesitate to contact us. Although we are not appraisers we can talk to you about the feasibility of an appeal and/or help you get an expert appraisal.
– BBC&B