Eddie Allen, Cherokee County’s tax assessor, is busy reviewing the new property revaluations, but he’s not as busy as anticipated.
He said typically after the revaluation notices are sent, 10 percent of property owners ask for a review of the appraised value of their property. As of last week, less than 1 percent have.
State law requires that counties reappraise property once every eight years. The last revaluation in Cherokee County was effective in 2012.
According to the tax assessor’s office, adjusting values regularly makes sure all property owners are paying their fair share in taxes. The assessment is only one part of the formula in determining taxes; the other is the millage rate set by the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners.
Allen said there could be all kinds of errors, as well as things that could change values. He urged anyone who thought their property’s assessment was incorrect to file an appeal either in person, through the mail or online.
“That gives us an opportunity to get the information correct,” he said, adding that it is their right to appeal.
Property owners have until 30 days from the date of the notice, or March 7, to file an informal appeal. Allen said that gives his office time to revisit properties before the formal appeal process begins the week of April 20.
In Andrews
Jan Olson is one property owner who has already filed an appeal.
As she looks out the windows of FernCrest Winery’s tasting room in downtown Andrews, Olson sees four empty buildings surrounding her business, and wonders how her property’s value jumped from $156,500 to $297,710. She just purchased the property in November for $170,000 after three years of renting the building.
“The prices are still depressed here,” she said. “We still have empty buildings. … If every single building was full here, maybe there would be a rationale for raising the assessment values.”
Olson said the only improvements to the property were basic repairs and maintenance, like new awnings and paint, and most work was completed by the previous owners before she purchased the building. The only real improvement in the last eight years is one space was enclosed for a secure wine storage area, which was also completed before she purchased it. In fact, she said she has not had time to do any other repairs since purchasing the building.
Wine is not made in the building on the Main Street. Instead, it is made on a separate property above Western Carolina Regional Airport.
Olson has also done her research. While her property was assessed at $459,882 per acre, other downtown businesses are being assessed at far less per acre, and the values of other business properties recently purchased are much closer to the purchase price.
“It wasn’t across the board - that’s the problem I see,” Olson said. “Maybe they made a mistake. Maybe it was a clerical error.”
“I just hope they are willing to be fair to everybody, not just me,” Olson added.
In Murphy
When Tim Radford of Murphy received all four of his property assessments on the same day, he was expecting a typical increase of $20,000-30,000 total. Instead, he found his properties increased about $423,000 total.
His home alone went up more than $151,000. In addition, property with just a radio tower and a building that holds the transmitter went up more than $232,500.
“You don’t expect your home is going to go up that much in value,” Radford said.
He waited a few days before reacting and announcing publicly – mainly to encourage others to check their assessments – that he needed to file an appeal.
Since Radford purchased the home on a whim in 2013, no structures have been added. The only work he has done to the property is the removal of some shrubs and painting. He added that it’s hard to find comparable properties for his non-traditional four-bedroom, three-bath house.
He had his bank appraise his home’s property just last year and was able to compare the two appraisals. The appraisal amount was about $16,000 less than the county’s, while the measurement of his house was off by 677 square feet, which he guessed is because his house is oddly shaped.
The property with the radio tower is 6.78 acres and has one less building on it than it had eight years ago. He thought the value may have increased because adjacent properties sold for high amounts, but the tower site doesn’t have the same potential uses as those nearby commercial properties.
“It’s really not usable for anything else unless I move the tower,” Radford said.
He visited the tax assessor’s office Friday afternoon, hoping they would be easy to work with. He figured they get a lot of angry people, and he wasn’t that at all – just concerned.
He learned from Allen that there were some communication issues due to the fact he lives on a private drive and the county’s appraiser could not access his house to get an accurate measurement. Radford did file an appeal citing the incorrect measurement and hopes to get a fair value.
Radford said he dreads seeing how much his taxes go up as a result of the new assessments. A friend helped him figure out that if his appeal fails and if the millage rate stays the same, his taxes could go up about $881 on just the house. If that’s the case, there’s something else he’s considered.
“This may be a prime time to sell,” he said.
In real estate
Local real estate agent John Poltrock has had “a bunch” of clients contact him about their property assessments from the tax office, and he’s been helping them though the process, even creating a video for his Re/Max team’s website with advice on what to do.
While the aim of the tax assessor is to find fair market value, Poltrock said several of his clients’ assessments were completely out of line. However, through some research, he’s seen that many of those properties just had incorrect data on file with the tax assessor’s office.
He recommends that everyone who thinks their assessment is off to verify the data with the tax assessor’s office. Once he helped clients with that, most ended up much closer to where he thought the properties’ values were.
For example, he had one property owner with 80 acres of land which he just priced at $250,000. The tax assessor valued the property at $400,000.
When Allen pulled up to the property, he and Poltrock saw the entire property was coded as on the river, when only 10 acres are. Once the adjustment was made, the assessment became closer to where Poltrock priced it.
“I think most people’s stuff will get resolved,” he said.
The biggest issue he saw was with commercial properties.
“It didn’t seem as though it was consistent,” Poltrock added. He believes the issue with commercial properties is that there aren’t enough comparable properties, making it harder to assess the correct value.
Overall, he said he hasn’t had as many concerned clients as in past revaluations. He added that in past revaluations, county commissioners have adjusted the millage rate so the actual tax bill each property owner receives remains close to even.
The tax assessor’s office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For details, visit the office in the Cherokee County Courthouse, Suite 232; call 835-3296; or visit cherokeecounty-nc.gov/211/2020-Revaluation.