Have You Appealed Your Allegheny County Property Tax Assessment?

If you live in East Deer, Sewickley Heights, South Versailles or Neville, you saw the highest increase in property value at a rate of 61% to 96% according to the listing of average increases posted by Allegheny County for the 2013 Court-Ordered Reassessment. Wesley Graham, Acting Chief Assessment Officer for Allegheny County, has indicated that nearly 60,000 informal hearings were requested by property owners by the March 18 deadline which represents more than 10% of the 550,000 taxable parcels in the county. Another 21,000 property owners have requested formal hearings.

Common Pleas Court Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who is overseeing the court-ordered reassessment, has requested that all appeals be heard during 2012 before the assessments are used to calculate 2013 taxes. In an effort to comply with the Judge’s request, the Appeals Board is more than doubling the number of hearing officers – who are real estate professionals and attorneys.

The Allegheny County website was recently enhanced to include property assessment information, which includes but is not limited to:

• 2012 Base Year (current) Values
• 2013 Court-Ordered Reassessment Values
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Guidelines for Preparing for an Informal or Formal Hearing

The county’s website also includes a listing of homes sold at a fair market value during January 2009 through March 2011 in an attempt to ease research efforts of those homeowners appealing the court-ordered assessment.

Interested in knowing what methods the assessors used to calculate the new property values? Well, that’s too bad. David Montgomery, Appeals Board Solicitor, and Phillis D. Lavelle, Appeals Board Chairwoman, told members of City Council that they did not know that information. 

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This advice is not intended or written to be used for, and it cannot be used for, the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties that may be imposed, or for promoting, marketing or recommending to another person, any tax related matter.