Senator hopes to speed up revaluation appeals

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Mecklenburg County’s assessor’s office is awash in appeals as residential property owners challenge their 2011 revaluations.

After commercial revaluation notices go out this month, the assessor’s office is expecting 40,000 appeals of residential and commercial properties.

Many of those appeals will likely make it before the Board of Equalization and Review, and God only knows when that panel will get through them all.

Enter state Sen. Robert Rucho.

In the ongoing session of the General Assembly, he’s pushing a piece of legislation that would force the county to pay interest to property owners who challenge their revaluations and win.

Let’s say a person thinks their new value is too high and — because the board of equalization will be too swamped to consider the appeal fast enough — ends up having to pay the higher tax bill before their property’s value is adjusted downward. Rucho wants that property owner to get back not just the amount they overpaid but interest, too.

Rucho sees his legislation as a way to turn up the heat on those involved in hearing the appeals. If the county has to pay interest to property owners, he reasons, that might be an incentive to speed up the appeals process.

His bill, he said last week, is very consumer-friendly.

Rucho isn’t expecting the board of equalization to be the only thing slowing down the appeals process. He foresees problems for property owners who try to hire their own appraiser to help challenge their 2011 values, because, he says, there’s huge demand for appraisers. These days, it takes six months to get an appraisal done, he said. (I’m not sure whether Rucho is right on this point, but I can say that I had an appraisal done last month on a home I am buying in Mecklenburg County, and it took 10 days, which my agent said is a little longer than normal.)

It’s not the only legislation Rucho has backed this session to change the county’s revaluation process. He also pushed a bill, ratified last week, that allows the county to increase the number of members on the board of equalization and review.

Rucho, a dentist and Republican who lives in Matthews and whose district, 39, covers southeast Charlotte, said he is skeptical of the values the assessor’s office has come up with in the latest revaluation, saying he’s not sure whether they are “very valid.” Based on everything he’s been reading, property values have been going down, he said.

“I’ve heard some people say their homes in Dilworth had gone up 300 percent,” he said. “That’s hard to believe.

“Market value is what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller. Right now, you can’t sell a house.”

As of last week, Rucho’s legislation, which he attached to another bill, had not cleared the House, but it seems poised to win support from Speaker of the House Thom Tillis who (1) is a fellow Republican and (2) represents Mecklenburg County.

Rucho expects his bill to get passed in the House this week.

Then it’s on to Gov. Beverly Perdue for her approval.

Rucho doesn’t expect Perdue to veto his bill.

Editor Deon Roberts can be reached at [email protected].