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Ordinance of the County of Allegheny amending Article 210 of the Administrative Code, Assessment Standards and Practices, to establish a procedure for automatic taxpayer appeals under extraordinary circumstances for the 2006 and subsequent tax years.
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WHEREAS, Section 5-210.04 of the Administrative Code directs the Office of Property Assessments, at the direction of the Chief Assessment Officer, to employ a computer assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) system to model estimates for revaluations in each Countywide Reassessment; and
WHEREAS, the CAMA system may, under the Administrative Code, apply any of three methods of revaluation (the cost approach, the income approach, or the sales approach), each of which may result in different values for a given piece of property; and
WHEREAS, the Administrative Code permits the Chief Assessment Officer broad latitude in prescribing guidelines for factors to be considered by the CAMA system, so long as these factors are in accordance with International Association of Assessing Officers guidelines; and
WHEREAS, as has been seen in the past, the factors used in programming the CAMA system can and occasionally do result in large fluctuations in property value, and the fashion in which this occurs is not necessarily predictable;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
Article 210 of the Administrative Code is amended in part to add the following provision as §5-210.20:
§ 5-210.20. Special appeals: automatic administrative appeal procedures for 2006 and subsequent tax years.
A. Upon determination by the County's CAMA system that a residential property has increased in value by an amount exceeding the prior year's assessed value by at least 25%, the Chief Assessment Officer shall perform or cause to be performed a review of the CAMA system results for that property to ensure their accuracy, and an appeal of the revaluation of that property shall be deemed to be filed by the property owner(s) on the date on which the assessment rolls are certified by the Chief Assessment Officer. If the Chief Assessment Officer finds that the application of the CAMA system has resulted in a pattern of increased assessments within a given municipality, he or she may grant automatic appeals to any property owners affected within that municipality, regardless of the percentage of the increase to the individual owners' assessments.
(1) The Office of Property Assessments, at the direction of the Chief Assessment Officer, shall cause to be mailed to the owner of such objects of taxation within the County at the change notice address on record with the Office of Property Assessments a notice of the automatic appeal of the certified valuation that shall include a hearing date for the appeal. Such notices must be mailed within 60 days of the certification of the assessment rolls by the Chief Assessment Officer.
(2) Owners of properties subject to automatic appeals may withdraw their appeals at any time, consistent with applicable law and established procedures governing withdrawal of appeals.
SECTION 2. This Ordinance shall become effective as of December 31, 2005.
SECTION 3. If any provision of this Ordinance shall be determined to be unlawful, invalid, void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be considered severable from the remaining provisions of this Ordinance which shall be in full force and effect.
SECTION 4. Any Resolution or Ordinance or part thereof conflicting with the provisions of this Ordinance is hereby repealed so far as the same affects this Ordinance.
SPONSORED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KRESS