Reassessment Begins In County

Work has already begun on Rockbridge County’s reassessments for 2011.

Commissioner of the Revenue David Whitesell stated this week that the appraisers for the county’s general reassessment are currently working in the Glasgow and Goshen areas of the county.

The appraisers with Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal Co. are visiting each property in an effort to update and confirm the existing information on the real estate records. They are interviewing the property owner if he or she is at home. If no adult is available, they are leaving door hanger cards stating when they visited the property and requesting the card be returned if more information is needed. Whitesell also stated there is an 800 number on the card so the property owner may call with the same information.

Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal has been in the field since November inspecting the properties and is expected to complete the field work by October 2010. After the fieldwork is complete, each property owner will receive a change of assessment notice in the mail. The change of assessment notice will have the proposed new values as well as the existing values for the property. The notice will also include the phone number to call if a property owner wishes to discuss the new values with an assessor. The deadline to call for an appointment will also be printed on the change of assessment notice.
“We did an in-depth market study of the sales having occurred in Rockbridge County before we began our fieldwork.

These sales encompassed late 2008 and the first half of 2009,” explained David Hickey with Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal. “We recognize this is an ever-changing market and will monitor the sales each month until the field work is finished. We will then adjust our values to reflect the current market conditions prior to mailing the change of assessment notices to the property owners.”
Property owners having questions regarding the general reassessment may call the commissioner of the revenue’s office at 463-3431.
 

This is part of the December 9, 2009 online edition of The News-Gazette.

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