The Board of Supervisors voted on May 17 to approve a contract with Pearson’s Appraisal Services, Inc. to complete the 2024 reassessment process. Work will begin in June with the goal of having updated values in place for real estate taxes in 2024. Based in Richmond, Pearson’s has provided real estate appraisal and assessment services across Virginia and North Carolina since 1981.
Per the contract, Pittsylvania County will pay a per-parcel assessment fee of $26. When spread over the County's approximately 53,000 parcels, the reassessment project will cost about $1.38 million. Pearson Appraisals will also charge $39 per construction permit. The Board of Supervisors allocated funds to cover this project in the FY 23 budget, which was adopted in April and runs from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
The Board of Supervisors voted in March to invalidate the results of the 2022 reassessment due to significant concerns that had emerged regarding the assessment’s statutory compliance, data integrity, and uniform/equitable application of values. The County issued a request for proposals for a new general County tax assessment soon afterward. For fiscal years 2023 and 2024, the County is utilizing real estate values from the 2018 reassessment.
The property values that Pearson assesses will go into effect for real estate tax bills in 2024. The company is expected to start work in June of 2022 and begin field visits in July, with the goal of visiting 3,700 properties monthly.
Pearson is scheduled to complete all appraisal and review services by September 2023. Reassessment notices are scheduled to be mailed to property owners in October of 2023, and hearings with the Board of Assessors are expected to take place in October and November of 2023. The Board of Equalization, which is an independent body appointed by the Board of Supervisors to hear and consider assessment appeals, is slated to meet between February and April 2024.
Legally required by the Commonwealth of Virginia, reassessment is when up-to-date property values are determined for an entire locality or municipality. Updated values are determined through photographs, aerial images, and observations from a trained crew of property assessors. There are many complicated formulas and factors involved in determining and updating property values, which are kept by the Commissioner of the Revenue.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up