cabarrus county board of commissioners regular meeting november ...

October 17, 2011 (Regular Meeting)PageTHE APPEALS PROCESSRevaluation NoticesNotices will be mailed to all completed parcels with the reason for changelisted as “County Wide Revaluation”. Parcels flagged with a notice code of95, 96, 97, or 99 will not receive a revaluation notice until our appraisalwork is completed. As we complete the work on these parcels they should beflagged with a 25 (County Wide Revaluation) notice code unless the buildingis partially complete. In this case use the 18-notice code (BuildingPartially Complete) to prevent the taxpayer from thinking the value is acompleted value. Any current year straight transfers that come through afterthe notices are mailed should be flagged with a 25-notice code so the ownerof record as of January 1 of the revaluation year will receive a notice.Once we start working on next year’s new construction and splits we will usethe appropriate new notice code from our list of codes.Cabarrus County Assessor Informal ReviewTaxpayers wishing to request an informal review of their value must completethe Informal Review Form in its entirety and return it to us within 30 daysof the date of the notice. Any form post marked by the 30 th day will beaccepted as timely filed. If a postmark cannot be read or is not present theform will be considered received on the date it arrived in our office. Faxedcopies of the appeal form are not acceptable. Once a timely filed InformalReview Form is received one of our appraisers will review the value and sendthe taxpayer a new notice with notice code 33 (Revised Notice) or 34(Reviewed no Change) or 35 (Field Reviewed, No Change in Value). Taxpayersthat receive these notices and still do not agree with the assessed value mayfile an appeal to the Board of Equalization and Review. Likewise, anytaxpayer that failed to file their request for an informal review within the30 days may file an appeal to the Board of E & R as long as they do so priorto the Board’s Adjournment.Cabarrus County Board of Equalization and ReviewThese appeals may be filed anytime prior to the adjournment of the Board forthe purposes of accepting appeals. This date will be advertised in the localpaper and is usually in late April. Anyone that receives a notice of valueafter the Board adjourns will have 30 days from the date of the notice tofile an appeal to the Board. All requests to appeal to the Board must be madein writing either by letter or on the Request to Appeal Form that will beattached to the Notice of Decision from the informal review process. AllBoard requests are to be sent to Secretary to the Board for processing.Anyone that request to appeal to the Board will receive an Application forHearing from the Board and must fill it out and return it within 30 days.Once the Application for Hearing is returned one of our appraisers will reinspectthe property and review all available information. If our appraiserand the taxpayer reach an agreement the case may be settled by completing andsigning an Assessment Agreement which will be presented to the Board forfinal approval. If an assessment agreement is not reached the taxpayer willbe notified of the date and time of the hearing. At the hearing the taxpayerwill be able to present their evidence and testimony to the Board and acounty appraiser will present the county’s evidence and make a recommendationto the Board. Within 30 days after the Board meeting the taxpayer willreceive a Notice of Decision from the Board indicating the Board’sdetermination. The taxpayer has 30 days from the date of the Notice ofDecision to file an appeal of the Board’s decision to the N.C. Property TaxCommission.North Carolina Property Tax Commission (PTC)These appeals must be filed within 30 days of the date of the Notice ofDecision from the Cabarrus County Board of Equalization and Review. Theseappeals are typically heard in Raleigh. The PTC is made up of 5 membersappointed by the Governor and the Legislature. An individual taxpayer maypresent evidence to the PTC without the assistance of an attorney but nonindividualowners must have an attorney represent them. These appeals maytake months or years to schedule and hear. Prior to the hearing,representatives of the Department of Revenue will meet with the County andthe taxpayer to review the merits of the case and resolve them when possible.The taxpayer or the County may appeal the decision of the PTC to the Court ofAppeals.North Carolina Court of AppealsThe Court of Appeals hears all appeals from the Property Tax Commission. Thetaxpayer or the County may appeal the decision of the Court of Appeals to theN.C. Supreme Court.A-1Page 192