Letters from the Campbell County Property Valuation Administration started rolling out earlier this week in Fort Thomas, Southgate, Wilder, and Woodlawn.
And residents noticed a significant jump in their property taxes.
Campbell County Property Valuation Administrator Dan Braun said the cause of some 40%-50% increases is due to the booming housing market that took off in 2020 due to the pandemic. The county is assessed using fair market value price. According to the PVA website, Fair Market Value is the price a property will bring in a voluntary sale between a willing seller and a willing buyer.
The new assessments will take effect this year. Depending on the city, the tax bills will go out on either Oct. 1 or Nov. 1. The county bills will go out on Oct. 31 with the new assessments.
Due to how the county groups together their cities for review, some residents think that Fort Thomas, Southgate, Wilder, and Woodlawn are getting the short end of the stick with the fair market value being so high. Braun said when it comes time to do the next valuation, which will be for Cold Spring, Alexandria and Highland Heights, it is likely that the market will recede, and property taxes will go down.
Fort Thomas resident Beth Yeary is a realtor and has access to tools that compiles data for her quickly. She has created an excel spreadsheet with data such as deed transfers to help other residents gather information for their valuation appeals. Yeary also went through the process herself back in 2020.
“I have looked up all of the deed transfers that had been recorded since October 2020, which would have been 18 months ago, because the assessor says it has to be within 18 months, and I just did a data dump, and I sent it to over 220 citizens so far who have reached out to me asking for it,” Yeary said.
Braun said the way the process works is that the county will look at a city and then break it into parts, such as with Fort Thomas looking at the north end, middle and south end of the city because they are so different. Or if a city has various subdivisions like Alexandria, looking at each separately. They are then looking at the type of house in each area. Is it a single-story or two-story home? Does the house have brick or siding? And then comparing those homes to what the properties around them have sold for.
One thing to note about the valuation process is the PVA office can only determine your home valuation based on the outside of your home. They are legally not allowed to enter your house, Braun said.
Yeary said she doesn’t see how the department had the bandwidth to assess each house across all four cities.
“It takes two to three hours for a skilled person to come up with a home value after looking at comps and making adjustments,” Yeary said. “So, the fact that their office of three people hit every single house in four communities is shocking. I don’t see how they could have possibly looked at this on a case-by-case basis.”
Braun said most of the appeals have come out of Fort Thomas.
According to Braun, the assessors looked at photos of the houses to do their valuations.
“We look at a sales range, take out the highest and lowest because they are an anomaly, start with the median go higher or lower based on the conditions on the outside. It is subjective,” Braun said. “Then they do mass assessing. Looking at every house on the street, the type of construction they are, then apply the dollar per square foot. We look at photos of each house and then go from there.”
Fort Thomas resident and Huff Realty manager Rob Beimesche said he doesn’t like that the value of his home is changed based on what a neighbor’s house sold for.
“There are plenty of homes that still need to be updated,” Beimesche said. “This is where I feel for the people that have lived in their homes for 30 years. They have no intention of moving, and they’re kind of on a fixed income, or they’ve set their budgets up to reflect what the taxes are. I’ve spoken with people with huge jumps, $200,000 valuation differences, or $150,000. Not everybody’s ready for and prepared for an extra $500 a month going into taxes.”
Braun said they look at how long a person has lived in their home and when the home last sold to get an idea of the renovation status inside a home. If someone has lived in their house for 30 years, they assume it hasn’t undergone many renovations. If someone moved into their place within the past five years, they guess the property has had decent upgrades.
This is where the appeals process comes in.
Because the assessor does not know the condition of the inside of the home, the homeowner can appeal to show that the house is not worth what the valuation was for. Appeals can begin the moment notices are sent out.
The kicker?
You must appeal by May 16 each year, or the PVA office will not accept your appeal. Braun said the appeal period is set by the Department of Revenue and cannot be extended. Even with the influx of appeals coming in this time around.
“Somewhere in the near future, if the market crashes, you can still appeal,” Braun said. “You don’t have to wait for an assessment to appeal, but it still has to be in the two-week period in May.”
Walk-ins for the appeals process are still not accepted due to COVID-19. You can call the PVA’s office or email them to appeal.
Braun said the best thing you can do is send photos of items in your home that would cause the value to go down, such as an unrenovated kitchen or bathroom, cracks in the walls, a roof that needs replacing, etc. Braun said the PVA office would accept walk-in appointments under special circumstances like for people who are vision or hearing impaired.
Beimesche said he has also been busy helping people with the appeals process.
“I’ve had quite a few, at least 15 people reaching out asking what to do and how they can appeal it, and if their house is really worth that,” Beimesche said.
Yeary said the average person is at a loss of where to begin with, the appeal process.
“It’s the least I can do,” Yeary said. “I’ve had so many people respond saying, ‘This is daunting, I don’t even know where to begin.’ And for everybody to run out and hire professional appraisers to help them, it’s just not feasible. I mean, financially, and it was going to take too long, there’s such a short window for which to contest this. And that’s the other thing; I don’t know how the appraiser’s office is going to meet this window because it’s only a couple of weeks.”
All property is required by KRS 132.690 to be physically examined at least once every four years. Properties can be examined more in that period, depending on the scenario. New builds fall under this category and areas Braun refers to as hot or cold spots in the county.
According to the PVA website, new construction and improvements on properties require a physical review by a field representative and a review by an assessor. If you had a build done and your city is up for valuation before you have had that home for four years, then you may have a valuation done more than once during those four years.
Hot spots in a county refer to areas that have a booming market. If a place like Arcadia is selling many houses and the market increases, then properties in that area may require a second valuation in those four years.
The same goes for cold spots. Referring to an area in the county where the market is dry, causing home valuations to decrease.
Yeary built her home in 2020 and had a valuation done, which she appealed.
“We purchased in 2020, and we tore down a house and built a new one, and we were assessed at a much higher price than we paid,” Yeary said. “So, I was able to successfully contest that valuation in 2020. But the cold hard facts I provided to the assessor’s office were completely ignored. I gave them a bill from our builder showing exactly what we paid for our structure which was significantly less than they assessed us for. And she basically said, ‘I don’t care.'”
Yeary said it came down to her negotiating with the office. She told them she would drag out the process as long as she needed to, and her following email from the PVA was a form to sign for the price settlement.
She said she was reassessed again this year because it was Fort Thomas’ year for property valuations. This time around, she is not planning to contest.
Beimesche, however, said he is planning to contest his valuation. He said he built an addition to his house last year, which required a valuation. Then he received another valuation when Fort Thomas’ turn came up this year.
“The valuation jumped 98% when the addition was put on last year,” Beimesche said. “Which rightfully so, because I definitely added value to the home with the addition and more square footage and that sort of thing. But to turn around and tell me that my price is $60,000 more just because six months have gone by that’s a stretch if you ask me.”
With bills going out in Oct. and Nov., Beimesche said everyone’s escrow amounts would be short, so their payments will adjust next April. The ones who don’t escrow will have to pay out of pocket this Oct. and Nov. Beimesche said this would not give people much time to save.