Assessment Guide

* BACKGROUND

This booklet is prepared by Kenneth R. Behrend, Esquire. For five years from January 1996 through December of 2000 Mr. Behrend served on the Allegheny County Board of Property Assessment Appeals. Mr. Behrend was the only Board Member who refused to sign the Sabre System Contract on the basis that it did not protect the public as to the accuracy of values set on the property and the accuracy of data collection. His area of practice of law is in litigating claims against insurance companies, personal injury and consumer rights.

* This document is prepared to assist you in winning your Assessment Appeal. This information is provided for your review and assistance in presentation at your appeal. They are set up as a model to follow, so that you will be able to present all of the information in an organized manner. This will assist the Hearing Examiner in understanding your argument.

* Please note that there are two halves to your assessment appeal. The first is to establish your fair market value, the second is to make sure that the data collected on your property is accurate, as the data is used by the County computer system to calculate your market value for taxation purposes. If you do not correct the data, every time a revaluation occurs, you will have to appeal again, because the computer will use the wrong data to compute your market value.

* NEW 2002 ASSESSMENT VALUE BECAUSE OF REVALUATION OF COUNTY

* Notice of Assessment Change Form

On this Form you will find the following information for your property, you will need this information to complete the Appeal Application Form:

* Block and Lot Number

* Total Market Value

* Land and Building Value

* PROPERTY OWNER APPEAL FORM

* The Form is greatly simplified for Appeal Year 2002

* Municipality and ward where the property is located

* Block and Lot Number (from Change of Assessment Notice, the tax bill, County Website or call Assessment Office at (412)350-4600 (press 8)

* Location of Property is the Address of the Property that is under Appeal

* Information on Agent or Representative, this is for the Agent, if you have one, if not leave blank.

* You must sign and date the Form

Part II

* REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS FROM THE COUNTY

* You should request the following two documents from the Office of Property Assessment, which is located on the second floor of the County Office Building on the corner of Forbes Ave. and Ross St. in downtown Pittsburgh. Phone number (412)350-4600. The documents must be picked up at the Office, but anyone can pick up the card on your behalf, as well as you can request the Property Record Card for any property in Allegheny County.

These documents are essential to winning your appeal. They are the basis of how the New Assessed Value as assigned to your property.

* Property Card a/k/a Property Record Card

This document is the heart of the new assessment system as it relates to your property. You will be at a great disadvantage at your appeal hearing, if you do not get a copy of your card and review it in detail prior to the appeal hearing. To ensure that the data on your property is accurate, you must have this Property Card. There are many errors that have been encountered on these cards, everything from the wrong amount of square footage to incorrect inclusion of items that your property does not actually have, yet adds value to the property.

If the information is not accurate, you should bring this to the attention of the Hearing Examiner, and list each error in writing and provide a copy at the Appeal Hearing to the Hearing Examiner to be placed in the record. This information is used to determine your Assessed value. Cost $1.00/page (2 pages long pr property)

Again, we must stress that this document is extremely important to you and a review of it may greatly increase your chance of winning your Assessment Appeal. The other forms that we have included herein relate to this property record card.

Please note that the information contained on the County’s Real Estate Web page is only about 35% of the information that is contained on your Property Record Card. That is why it is imperative that you obtain a copy of your Property record Card.

* Sales Grid or Sales Comparable Grid

This document contains the properties that sold recently in your neighborhood which were supposedly used to determine the Market Value on your property. You need to see this information to determine whether or not they are actually similar or comparable to your property. Do not confuse this information with the Comparable Sales Information that is available on the Internet or on the County Real Estate web site.

Part III

* INFORMATION YOU SHOULD GATHER FOR YOUR APPEAL HEARING

* Property Record Card on your property from the Office of Property Assessment (412)350-4600.

* Sales Price of Comparable Homes that sold in the last three years in your neighborhood. A map of your neighborhood, as defined by Sabre is available from the County for a cost of $2.50.

* You should gather information on at least three similar properties that sold in the last three years in your neighborhood .

Some sources of recent sales of comparable properties are as follows:

* Local Realtor

* the Real Estate Multi-List for Western Pennsylvania

* Newspapers

* Web pages which contain property sales information

(then click on Real Estate Website)

* The County SMDA system can also be used to obtain recent comparable sales. To use this SMDA system, however, you or someone on your behalf must go in person to the Office of Property Assessment on the Second Floor of the County Office Building. (412)350-4600. There is a slight charge for this service. It can be very helpful for gathering information, if you have the time and ability to go to the Office.

* It is a good idea to take photographs of your house and the Comparable houses to show the Hearing Examiner that they truly are comparable properties.

* Take pictures of any internal problems with your house

* Review your house for any problems which should be repaired or replaced

* Internal or External

* If possible, get repair estimates: bids or price quotes for the items that need to be repaired or replaced

* Take photographs of the problems

* Some Examples of types of problems that will decrease the value on the house

* Foundation cracked * Old wiring

* Water Damage to Ceiling * Leaky Basement

* Old kitchen or bathrooms * Driveway crumbling

Part IV

* THE APPEAL HEARING

* First check that the County has the correct information on your house

* Ask for the Assessor’s Report on your property prepared for the Appeal Hearing.

(Chances are none exists, there is pending legislation on this point), but your should check in case there is a report, it may be very helpful to you.

* If provided check for accuracy of information on the Assessor’s Report

* If not provided, ask the assessor:

* Do they have a C.P.E. License (Certified Pennsylvania Evaluator)?

* Did the assessor see my house?

* Does the Assessor know anything about the value of my house?

* Provide Hearing Examiner with you information as to why you should have your assessment reduced

* Review Property Record Card errors

* Sales Comparables of recent sales of similar homes

* Show pictures and Estimates for Repair (if any)

* Explain problems with the house that hurt value

* Explain problems with neighborhood which hurt value

* If the County starts sending Assessors to review the properties as part of the appeal hearing process then ask the following questions, if not, you are done with this phase of the process.

* After you provide your information, ask for County to provide a copy of:

* CPE/Appraiser’s Report Certifying the Market Value

* If provided review for accuracy to your property, and ask any questions you may have about the information and how it relates to your house

* If not provided, ask the assessor:

* Did the assessor review the sales grid for my property, if yes does he/she believe the properties listed are comparable?

* Did the assessor prepare or review a CPE Report Certifying the value of my property?

* How did the County determine the market value on my property?

* DECISION OF ASSESSMENT APPEAL BOARD

* The Property Assessment Board makes the decision, not the Hearing Examiner

· The decision is usually made within a few weeks of the Hearing, but the Board typically does not review the evidence you have submitted at the Hearing

Part V

* PETITION FOR APPEAL

* If you are not satisfied with the Assessed Value after the Board Decision, file an appeal to the Board of Viewers, within 30 days of the decision from the Assessment Appeal Board.

* The Board of Viewers will schedule a hearing at which you should present the same type of evidence, as mentioned above to support your Opinion of value for your property.

* After the Appeal is hear a Decision is mailed to you

* WORKSHEETS AND TABLES

These are to be used as models and to assist in presentation at the appeal hearing. They help both in determining market value and to make any corrections to your property record card.

* ACTUAL MARKET VALUE WORK SHEET

This worksheet is to be used to determine the market value based upon sales of comparable properties which were in the last three years. Any sales beyond three years will not be considered, so always limit your search to the prior three years only. All of the information can be obtained from the Internet web sights set forth above, in combination with the County Real Estate Web site, or from the County SMDA system at the Office of Property Assessment. (412)350-4600.

* PROBLEMS WITH SUBJECT PROPERTY WORK SHEET

If you have problems with your property that require work to make the house at full market value, you should prepare a worksheet and give a copy to the Hearing Examiner, along with written estimates from contractors to establish the cost to repair each item.

* ERRORS ON PROPERTY RECORD CARD WORK SHEET

If there are errors on your Property Record Card that improperly add value to your house, you should prepare a worksheet and give a copy to the Hearing Examiner to be put into the record, along with the corrections, so the Hearing Examiner will be able to understand the errors and correction can be made to the County computer to correct the errors.

Part VI

IF THE ERRORS ON YOUR PROPERTY RECORD CARD ARE NOT CORRECTED, THEN YOUR ASSESSMENT NUMBERS WILL BE WRONG, EVERY TIME A REVALUATION OCCURS.

* NEIGHBORHOOD DESIRABILITY - DEPRECIATION TABLE WORKSHEET

To determine the Normal Depreciation placed on your house, which is located in the “COST LADDER” Column of your property Record Card, you must gather three bits of information from the Property Record Card and then look on the Neighborhood Desirability Tables provided later in this document to learn how your depreciation factor was determined. The Depreciation Factor is very important to the total value of your house, as it decreases the value of your house, which means less taxes. In other words the higher the amount of depreciation, the less taxes you will have to pay. Thus, it is important to understand how the County arrived at the Depreciation Factor on your house and to determine whether or not it is accurate.

The information about the “Condition” of your house is used in conjunction with the “Effective Year” your house was built and the “Neighborhood Desirability Code” to arrive at the Normal Depreciation on the “COST LADDER” on your Property record Card.

The three bits of information to determine the Normal Depreciation are all found on the Property Record Card.

They are: 1)CONDITION, (of your house)

2) EFFECTIVE YEAR BUILT, (includes most recent building permit work)

3)NEIGHBORHOOD DESIRABILITY CODE

CONDITION This information is found on your Property Record Card in the “BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS” column, at the bottom, right next to the Grade of the Building.

EFF YR BLT This information is found on your Property Record Card in the “BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS” column.

NHBD DESIRE The Neighborhood Desirability Code is also found on your Property Record Card on the page with the photograph of your property, upper left hand corner.

To determine if the “Condition” of your house is accurate, you need to review the CLU Rating Guide, which is found later in this document. The CLU RATING GUIDE (Condition, Location and Usefulness) is a table that was used by Sabre Systems and adopted by the County and defines the house on your land. The descriptions range from Excellent to Poor. The description rating effects the value placed on your house, the better the description, the greater the value that is attributed to your house. For taxation purposes, the lower the description, the lower amount of taxes you pay on your property. This information is found on your Property Record Card in the “BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS” column, at the bottom, right next to the Grade of the Building.

To determine the “Effective Year Built” of your house, is also found on your Property Record Card in the “BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS” column. It may not be the year your house was built, as it reflects the most recent year a building permit was taken on your house and the house was updated. Thus your house could be built in the 1930's, but it was renovated in 1982. The Effective Year Built would be 1982. For depreciation purposes the 1982 year would be used to determine value. The older the house, the greater the depreciation and the lower the taxes. Thus you want to make sure that the accurate Effective year Built Information is on your Property Record Card.

To determine the Neighborhood Desirability Code, you need to review the table at the end of this documents. The Neighborhoods, as defined by the County, which are not neighborhoods as you and I would consider neighborhoods are broken into ratings from 1 to 5. A 5 is the highest valuation level and causes the greatest value to be placed on your house, by permitting the least amount of depreciation to occur. Thus the lower the number, the lower your taxes will be, if all other items remain the same. In other words it is in your best interest from a taxation standpoint to have a lower Neighborhood Desirability number.

Thus to determine the actual value assigned to your house on the “COST LADDER” found on your Property Record Card, you have to add up all the items in the “COST LADDER” up to the “TOTAL RCN” line in the “COST LADDER”, then you multiply the “Normal Depreciation Factor” times the “TOTAL RCN” amount, which equals your Normal Depreciation amount. Then you take the “TOTAL RCN” amount and subtract the depreciation amount to find out your “TOTAL VALUE” amount for your house. The “TOTAL VALUE” figure is “rounded off” to the nearest $50.00 increment.

For Example if your COST LADDER adds up to $163,081.00 the following demonstrates how the calculations work.

COST LADDER

TOTAL RCN $163,081.20

NORMAL DEPR 28.0000 $ 45,662.73 ($163,081.20 x 28.000 = $45,662.73)

TOTAL VALUE $117,400.00 ($163,000 - $45,600 = $117,400)

To demonstrate why it is important to have a higher depreciation factor compare. If the Depreciation Factor were 40.000 instead of 28.000.

TOTAL RCN $163,081.20

NORMAL DEPR 40.0000 $ 65,232.48 ($163,081.20 x 40.000 = $65,232.48)

TOTAL VALUE $ 97,800.00 ($163,000 - $65,200 = $ 97,800)

Thus the TOTAL VALUE would be reduced by nearly $20,000.00 off of the market value to your house.