Property revaluation now underway in Falls Village


FALLS VILLAGE — An effort to place new values on all properties in Falls Village began last week.

Assisted by a Massachusetts consultant, the assessor’s office began the task of visiting properties June 11 in an effort to determine the value of all taxable personal property within the town’s borders, including real estate.

The revaluation is now mandated by the state Office of Policy and Management every five years. Before 2000, revaluations were required every 10 years.

The purpose of a revaluation is not to raise taxes, assessor Hazel McGuire said in an interview this week. Rather, her job is to put a fair market value on property.

"We want to make sure this is done right," McGuire said. "So we hired a firm very well known in Connecticut."

With the blessing of Board of Selectmen and (indirectly) town residents who approved the 2007-08 budget, McGuire hired Vision Appraisal Technology of Northboro, Mass., a consulting firm that provides assessing services and software to hundreds of communities throughout the Northeast. The firm was hired after a competitive bidding process. The fee will be $79,500.Interior and exterior inspections

Specialists from the company have already begun knocking on doors and touring residential and commercial properties, inside and out. Their goal is to physically inspect and measure each building’s interior and exterior. Building characteristics such as location, size, age, quality of construction, improvements, topography, utilities and applicable zoning restrictions are noted.

Some town residents have grumbled about having a stranger come into their homes to poke around, but assessors must take note not only of a home’s exterior and the land on which it sits; they must also examine the inside for any improvements, said McGuire.

"I wish there was a better way," added McGuire. "But they have to visually look at each room."

The data collectors or "listers" carry photo identification and a description of their cars. Their license plate numbers are on file with the state police and the assessor’s office. Just to be on the safe side, McGuire suggests that homeowners request identification before granting anyone permission to enter their home.

The entire process takes approximately 15 minutes. Listers generally work between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, with some additional weekend hours. Two separate attempts are typically made to enter a property; if no one is home on those occasions, a letter will be sent to property owners asking them to call and schedule an appointment at their convenience.Grand list determines taxes

Connecticut law requires all real estate, motor vehicles and certain types of personal property to be assessed at 70 percent of fair market value, or at what they would typically be appraised at using established state criteria. Municipalities that fail to comply with the law are penalized by losing 10 percent of their state grants.

Currently the town’s grand list (or the sum total of all taxable real and personal property) is $122,692,420. McGuire would not venture a guess as to how much it will rise after the reval, but said the percentage increase will be far lower than in Salisbury, where a 2005 revaluation increased the real estate portion of the grand list by 84 percent in just five years.

The net taxable grand list in Salisbury is $1,159,244,255. Salisbury has a population of about 4,300; Falls Village has a population of about 1,140.

According to McGuire, homeowners who haven’t made many improvements since the last revaluation five years ago should not notice a big difference in their new assessment.

Falls Village’s tax base is small. There are few businesses in town to keep taxes down for homeowners. And about 50 percent of its real estate is exempt from local property taxes: State-owned lands and those owned by The Nature Conservancy are exempt. Farms and forested areas owned by utilities such as Northeast Utilities are partially exempt, McGuire explained.Information available to public

Another aspect of using Vision Appraisal Technology is that the company is providing software to help the town better keep track of its assessments. Eventually, assessor’s cards with pertinent information about all properties within the town’s borders will be available online.

McGuire said the company should be finished assigning assessed values to businesses and residences by September, with the new values to go into effect Oct. 1.

Property owners who feel they are overassessed can arrange for a hearing with the assessor’s office and representatives from Vision Appraisal Technology. If that proves unsatisfactory, they can go before the Board of Assessment Appeals in March. If the matter is still unresolved, the last option is a lawsuit against the town.

McGuire said she is happy to answer any questions property owners have about the revaluation. She can be reached at Town Hall at 860-824-0707, ext. 14.

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