Reassessment to proceed but without inside inspections

There won’t be a walk-through reassessment in the City of Port Washington after all.

Prompted by the coronavirus pandemic and acknowledging people aren’t likely to want a stranger walking through their houses, aldermen on Tuesday agreed to conduct a so-called walk-around assessment of properties in the city instead.

“It’s a recognition that getting into many people’s houses and completing the inspection isn’t likely to happen,” City Administrator Tony Brown said. 

“I think this will make (residents) feel a little more comfortable. We’re trying to acknowledge there is a pandemic going on and their home is their safe harbor. Letting someone in there may not be the most comfortable thing for them.”

Dean Peters, vice president of maintenance services for Associates Appraisal Consultants of Appleton, told the Common Council, “We have to consider safety.”

A walk-around reassessment will not necessarily be quite as accurate as a walk-through revaluation, Peters said, noting that assessors can better study the condition of a house when they are allowed inside.

Assessors sometimes discover incorrect square footages when going through a house, he said, and sometimes they discover improvements that have been made without permits.

“You’d be surprised how many finished basements we find,” he said.

But a walk-around assessment will still allow the city to bring assessments throughout the community in line with market values, Peters said.

“We can get assessments very close to 100% (of market value),” he said, noting that often the condition of the exterior of a house reflects the condition of the interior.

Peters said assessors will do an external inspection of houses, measuring them and asking homeowners to fill out a questionnaire about the home and its condition.

Ald. John Sigwart expressed concern that the walk-around inspection won’t necessarily reflect the condition of houses.

“Is there a point in time we would do an interior inspection and amend the tax roll?” he asked.

Peters suggested that at some point they could do more frequent assessments.

The goal, Brown said, is to set a cycle for assessments to avoid the large swings in value that occur when they aren’t done regularly.

“The large swings, it’s difficult for people to understand them,” he said.

In Port Washington’s case, a reassessment is required because properties in the city are assessed at about 80% of fair market value, well below the 90% required by the state Department of Revenue.

Once the assessment ratio falls below 90%, communities have five years to do a revaluation. Port needs to conduct a reassessment by 2022, Peters said.

While property values are expected to increase with a reassessment, it does not mean that taxes will also increase since values are expected to go up across the board.

However, people whose properties appreciate more than the average will likely see a tax hike while those whose properties increase less than the average will see a tax cut.

The city had contracted with Associated Appraisal Consultants earlier this year to conduct the walk-through assessment for $219,000.

Conducting a walk-around assessment will reduce the cost to $183,000, Brown said. Of this, the city will pay $50,000 for the work this year and the remainder in 2021.

The reassessment process will begin this fall, according to a schedule presented to aldermen Tuesday.

Much of the actual inspection work will be done in spring, with homeowners notified of their new assessments next summer.