Re: Assessment procedures

(ed. note: Some time ago I received this explanation by Hallie Wendorff. It clarifies that valuation is not based on building permit value or invoices but by computer valuation. I felt this info might be of interest to readers.)

Hallie Wendorff <hwendorff@charter.net> wrote:

Bill,

This is in answer to the question of Richard Woulfe.

The assessment of all property in the State of Wisconsin is governed by
state law. As the assessor for the City of Evansville I assess according to
that law. Some of the important requirements of that law are that all
property is assessed as of January 1 of every year and notices of changed
assessments are sent to all property owners whose assessment has changed for
that year. Those notices are sent at least 15 days before the Board of
Review meeting for that year. The first Board of Review meeting of the year
must be held within 30 days after the 2nd Monday in May. For further
information on these laws, you can check the Department of Revenue web site.
We have a link to this site from our website at www.wendorffassessing.com

In order to determine if an assessment should be changed I review the
building permits issued by the city for the year prior to the January 1
assessment date and visit properties where I think a change may have
occurred that would effect the assessment. This can be done any time
between the date the building permit was issued and the completion of the
assessment roll in anticipation of sending out assessment change notices.
It is not possible to visit all properties at the same time, so the visits
are typically spread out over several months, depending on my schedule of
other work and the weather. Because there is an annual cycle of assessment,
work done under a building permits taken out in the early months of the
year, typically will not be inspected until as long as a year or more later.
However work done under a building permit taken out at the end of the year
will be inspected very soon after it is taken out.

The cost listed on the building permit has little relevance to the
assessment of property. In order to uniformly assess property, so that the
assessment and taxes are equitable for all taxpayers, we assess property
using a computer pricing model that is based on sales and the
characteristics of property sold within the city. If our model indicates a
value for a particular improvement, then we add the computer estimated value
to the assessment of the property, not the cost listed on the building
permit.

Hallie Wendorff, Assessor
City of Evansville