Philadelphia Revised Assessments Due Out Today
Philadelphia is required to reassess all properties in the City at fair market value each year. While most years have been missed since this law was enacted to begin in 2014, the OPA (the assessor) has announced that with the aid of a new Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system, it would conduct a city-wide reassessment for 2023 and annually thereafter.
03.31.22
Those numbers are required by state law to be posted by March 31. In past years, these numbers have been posted to the OPA website sometime on March 31, with notices mailed to taxpayers in the first half of April.
The great unknown in any reassessment is what impact it will have on millage rates. Unlike other counties in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia is not required to adjust millage after a reassessment. The City is required to adopt a budget by June 30, so hopefully new rates will be out by then. But, occasionally budget deadlines are extended.
There are limits to the accuracy of any CAMA system. If you receive a value which you believe to be above market or if you can show that you have been valued differently than comparable properties, please contact us as soon as possible. It may be possible to negotiate with OPA. Failing a resolution with OPA, appeals to the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT) need to be filed by the first Monday in October.
In the past, OPA has required appraisals to support challenges to values and the BRT requires appraisals for properties worth more than $1 million. Appraisers are very backed up and the situation will become worse after today. Therefore, we urge you to let us know as soon as possible if you feel the new values are wrong. We emphasize that you will not have a successful appeal based solely on the fact that your value went up “too much.” You must be able to show that the proposed assessment is above fair market value, or possibly that it is non-uniform. In recent years, the BRT has not been open to non-uniformity arguments so even they present an uphill battle.
While we have a large team to work on these matters, Lawrence Arem and Michael Phillips will be coordinating these appeals. Please contact them or your regular Real Estate Department contact if you wish to have your assessments reviewed.
Co-authors Lawrence Arem and Michael Phillips are partners in the tax appeals group at Klehr Harrison.