Commercial Reval Meeting Draws 30 Property Owners

At Tuesday night's Township Committee meeting, Mayor Vic DeLuca had a bit of a coughing fit while talking about the upcoming property tax revaluation. "The reval always gets me choked up," remarked DeLuca to appreciative laughter from the audience.

Ten years ago, DeLuca took the brunt of taxpayers' rage when many were stunned by re-apportioned tax bills. DeLuca is doing all he can to make sure that the same scenario doesn't happen twice.

This time around the Town has hired a different revaluation firm, Appraisal Systems Inc., which purportedly has a more aggressive and wide-ranging communications approach. As part of this approach, Appraisal Systems held an orientation meeting for commercial property owners on Wednesday morning, January 20, in Town Hall (a similar orientation will take place for residential property owners at the DeHart Community Center on Thursday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m.).

Ted Lamicella, senior commercial appraiser, and Darren Raymond, state certified general real estate appraiser, gave attendees a timeline for the process and answered questions. 

The process in brief for commercial properties:

• In coming weeks, property owners will receive several forms mailed by the Town tax assessor. A sample form was distributed at the meeting. Raymond said that property owners could contact staff if they had any questions or needed help completing the forms. 
• Starting late spring through summer, field inspections will take place. Raymond explained that field inspectors would come unannounced but would schedule a second visit if unable to assess the property the first time around. "They all will be wearing inspection badges and their information will be on file at Town Hall."
• Next comes the Evaluation Process during which Appraisal Systems works with the Town tax assessor to determine the value of the property looking at the measurements supplied by the field inspectors, income information supplied on one of the forms, and a comparison analysis using market data (utilizing market values as of October 1, 2010).
• Valuation Notification Letters are then sent out. The earliest date for the release of these letters is November 5, 2010. Property owners can then request an information meeting with Appraisal Systems and the tax assessor for an explanation of the valuation. Adjustments to the valuation can be made at this time. Night and weekend appointments are available and meetings will take place in Maplewood.
• If a property owner is still dissatisfied with the valuation, he or she can file an appeal with the Essex County Board of Taxation starting February 1, 2011, and ending May 1, 2011. (Property owners with properties exceeding $750,000 in value can also appeal to the State tax board; that process is more formal and will require hiring counsel.)