Vision Government Solutions has been hired by the City of Middletown to assist in the citywide revaluation required by state law for the Oct. 1, 2013, Grand List. Representatives from Vision will begin collecting data from homes this month.
The data collectors or "listers" will carry photo identification and a description of their cars and license plate numbers will be on file with the Police Department, the Tax Assessor's Office, and Mayor’s Office. Assessor Damon Braasch suggests that homeowners request identification before granting anyone permission to enter their home.
During the initial phase of the municipal revaluation, listers will visit residential properties to measure the building's exterior and with permission from the owner, view the building’s interior. Building characteristics such as number of rooms, bathrooms, finished area, number of living units, property location, size, age, quality of construction, improvements, topography, utilities, etc. are noted.
To ensure a home has been viewed, the homeowner is asked to sign a data collection form to verify the inspection. The entire process takes approximately 15 minutes. Listers generally work between 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Two separate attempts are usually made to enter a property, if no one is home on those occasions, a letter will be send to homeowners to call and schedule an appointment.
Braasch noted that cooperation from the city’s homeowners is crucial. “Listers will not be allowed access to the city’s existing data. Every property will be listed from scratch.”
While property owners are not required to permit listers to inspect their property they are strongly encouraged to do so to ensure accurate data is obtained and a fair appraisal of their property can be performed. If a lister is unable to perform an interior inspection of the property they will be required to estimate building characteristics such as condition, room count, or finished area, which could result in an inaccurate or excessive assessment.
Because inaccurate information on the property record could lead to errors in the assessment of the property, all homeowners will be sent a summary of the data collected. By law, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to verify the record for their property are accurate, and if any errors are found they are encouraged to follow mailer instructions to correct the data.
In addition to listing properties, photographs of properties will be obtained for the revaluation project.
To verify a lister is working in your neighborhood, call the Police Department at (860) 344-3200 or 347-6941. Questions about the revaluation may be directed to the Tax Assessor's Office at 344-3454.
