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Revaluation
The Town of North
Kingstown is currently conducting a revaluation of all real property in
accordance with Rhode Island General Laws. Vision Appraisal Technology was
awarded the bid to complete the revaluation with an assessment date of December
31, 2006 for the 2007 tax roll. The new assessments will be available in
February 2007. Assessment notices will be mailed to all property owners in
February. At that time Vision Appraisal will schedule hearings to discuss the
new assessments.
Current
assessment information is available on the Vision Appraisal web site:
www.visionappraisal.com.
This site will allow the inquiry of the Assessor’s database, including
ownership, land and building value, building data, sales data, and general
revaluation information. The ownership database is updated periodically
throughout the year.
For questions regarding
the database including ownership, mailing addresses, or exemptions, please call
the Assessor’s Office at 401-268-1531.
Please click on the questions below to view the answers to frequently asked
questions regarding a revaluation and to get the 2004 revaluation update.
A Revaluation is the process of
conducting the Data Collection and Market Analysis necessary to equalize the
values of all properties within a municipality for the purpose of a fair
distribution of the tax burden.
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The cities and town of
Rhode Island have continued to grow. Since
an increase in population, translates into an increase in the demand for
housing and other municipal paid services such as, schools, police, fire,
waste disposal, and snow removal it is essential that property values be
kept correct. The State of
Rhode Island requires that cities and town perform a Revaluation so that all
properties can be brought to current market value and contribute an
equitable portion of the total tax burden.
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Market Value is
determined by people, by the activity in the Real Estate Market and the
general economy. The value of
your property is based on an analysis of the entire market for the full two
(2) calendar years before the completion of the Revaluation Project.
The market can generally be defined as, you, the person who sold the
property to you, and the person willing to buy it from you.
It is the Appraisers
job to research and analyze the values in any particular area or
neighborhood. In effect, they
do what you would do to determine the selling price when putting your
property up for sale. Only the
appraiser has specific guidelines to follow.
Factors that are examined for each property are:
location, size, quality of construction, age of improvements,
topography, utilities, zoning restrictions, if any, etc.
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A physical
inspection of both the interior and exterior of each property is conducted,
where building dimensions and characteristics are noted.
This is the Data Collection phase of the project.
Each Data Collector carries an identification badge, a letter of
introduction on Town letterhead and their cars are registered with the Police
Department and Assessors Office.
While the Data Collection phase
is going on, Appraisers are studying the sales and determining where the actual
increases and decreases in value are occurring. This study of recent property sales allows comparisons to be
made and Appraisers to establish parameters to estimate the value of property
that has not been sold. The
Appraisers then review the collected data and apply the determining factors of
the sales analysis to come up with a value of each property.
Each property owner receives an
individual notice of the new assessment. Property
owners can also review the entire public assessed values, so that the property
owner can see what the values are around his/her property.
All property owners are given the opportunity to discuss their values
with the Appraisal Staff at an appointed time, which will be publicly announced
(Hearings) towards the end of the Revaluation.
At a hearing the property owner can voice concerns, discuss inaccuracies
or discrepancies with a qualified Appraiser who will review the property record
card and explain the value. Should
an inspection or re-valuation need to be done the Appraiser will make that
determination, and any changes that result will be sent to the property owner.
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Although a
Revaluation may result in an increase of nearly each individual assessment, it
does not mean that all property taxes will increase.
You may be saying “SURE!” but remember assessments are only the base
that is used to determine the Tax Burden. The
Tax Burden is the amount that the Municipality must raise to operate the local
government and support the many services each of us has come to expect, such as
schools, police, etc. If the same
amount of money is to be raised after the Revaluation as the previous year and
each assessment doubles, the tax rate would merely be cut in half.
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There are two very good methods of determining this.
First, compare your properties to similar properties that sold in the
previous year. Your value should be
in line with these sale prices. Second,
if no recent sales are available, compare your assessment to other similar
properties in your area using the Street Listing of Values available in the
Assessors Office. Your value should
be in line with these similar properties. Remember,
very few properties are exactly alike. Your
value should be comparable, but it seldom will be exactly the same as what seems
to be a similar property
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Since the last Revaluation, Real
Estate Values have changed significantly. Over
the same period, building construction costs have increased at a much slower
rate. Since building costs have not
increased as much as total values, the bulk of the total increase is
attributable to land. This makes
perfect economic sense, as it is land that is in limited supply.
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Each person employed on
this project are certified by passing the International Association of Assessing
Officer’s (IAAO) qualification testing. Each
has met the educational and experience requirements defined in the 3 levels of
appraisal personnel and the general requirements listed below.
- Project Manager of Supervisor:
Have passed the testing for certification at this level and
successfully completed the IAAO courses 101 and 102.
Each course consists of an intensive teaching program with a written
test to pass at the end to mark successful completion.
Each Project Manager or Supervisor will have 5 recent years
experience as a Real Estate Appraiser, at least 2 years must be in mass
appraisal. They must possess
extensive knowledge of state laws, department rules, appraisal manuals,
governing local assessment administration, and have demonstrated an ability
to apply these to unusual situations of property appraisal, assessment and
review.
- Commercial and Industrial Appraisers:
Have passed the testing for certification at this level and
successfully completed IAAO courses 101 and 102, with 3 recent years
experience in the appraisal of all types of real estate with extensive
knowledge of appraisal principles, methods, and their application to all
types of property.
- Residential Appraiser:
Have passed the testing for certification at this level and
successfully completed IAAO course 101 and meets the minimum requirements of
being over 18 years of age, have a high school diploma and have not less
than 6 months experience and training, both in-class and in-field in what
information is required during the Data Collection Phase of the Revaluation.
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Towards the end of the
Revaluation, every homeowner receives a notice of their proposed valuation based
on the analysis performed. These
values are not final. When a
homeowner has a question or concern about the proposed valuation, they are asked
to call the firm and a date and time to meet will be set to discuss the
valuation process and answer any questions the homeowner may have.
An informal hearing is not a forum to discuss taxes, it is strictly meant
to answer questions on the property valuations.
Homeowners are asked to come
prepared with questions and have compared their property to other comparable
ones in their neighborhood. A
Hearing Officer will determine if a review of the property is necessary.
All changes to value that occur due to a hearing will be reflected in the
change notice that is sent after hearings are complete.
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If any
property-owner believes the assessment on their property is in excess of its
Fair Market Value, they may appeal to the Tax Assessor and if still aggrieved
may appeal to the Municipality’s Assessment Board of Review.
The Assessment Board of Review will review the case make a determination
as to the disposition of the appeal. Should
the property-owner still feel the assessment is incorrect, they may appeal to
the Superior Court for the judicial district in which the town is located.
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