You asked if the law extends the time period for hearing assessment appeals when a town extends the deadline for completing a revaluation. You also asked if revaluations performed by private companies must meet state standards.

ASSESSMENT APPEALS EXTENSIONS

The answer to both questions is yes. The law specifies deadlines for completing the grand list; notifying taxpayers if their property assessment increased; and filing, hearing, and deciding appeals. It allows a town’s chief executive officer to extend the deadline for completing the grand list by one month and, if the does so, automatically extends the deadlines for filing, hearing, and deciding appeals by one month. He can extend the deadline if the assessor needs more time to complete a revaluation and must notify the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) secretary within two weeks after doing so.

Normally, assessors have until January 31 to complete the grand list and must notify taxpayers within 10 days after doing so if the assessed values of their properties increased. Taxpayers then have until February 20 to file their appeals with the board of assessment appeals, which then has until March 1 to notify them as to whether it will hear the appeal, and if so, the hearing’s time and place. The board must hear and decide the appeals by March 31 and notify each taxpayer about its decision within one week after making it. The law extends each of these dates by one month (CGS § 12-111(b), as amend by PA 03-269).

REVALUATION STANDARDS

The law requires to OPM secretary to adopt regulations setting performance-based standards towns must use to determine if their revaluations are accurate (CGS § 12-62i (a)). He must also adopt regulations for certifying revaluations conducted by towns or revaluation companies on their behalf. Attachment 1 is the OPM regulations regarding the standards and the certification requirements (Conn. Agency Regs. § 12-62i).

The law penalizes municipalities that fail to meet these standards. A town that conducts an uncertified revaluation must forfeit 10% of its total state statutory formula grants it would have received in the fiscal year following the revaluation. And it must continue to forfeit 10% in each succeeding year that it fails to meet the standards.

A town that receives no state grants must pay the state the equivalent of 3% of its property tax levy for the prior fiscal year. The state must deposit any grants or funds subsequently allocated to the town with the state treasurer, and continue to do so until the penalty is paid. The town can recoup the funds if it meets the standards within one year after the revaluation was completed (CGS § 12-62i(b)).

(Revaluation companies cannot perform a revaluation unless the secretary certified them (CGS § 12-2c)).

JR: ts