12/18/2023
According
to preliminary results released today by Missouri State Auditor Scott
Fitzpatrick, up to 200,000 homeowners in Jackson County were the victims of a
flawed and inadequate assessment process that failed to comply with state law.
The State Tax Commission has reviewed the findings of fact presented to county
officials by the Auditor and agrees with the Auditor's summary of the serious
problems with the Jackson County 2023 assessment described in the initial
report. Fitzpatrick says he believes the failure of the Jackson County
Assessment Department to abide by the law should invalidate the increases in
assessed valuation over 15 percent.
The audit
of the Jackson County Assessment Department is ongoing, but Fitzpatrick said
his office has determined the department failed to provide property owners with
adequate notification of their rights regarding physical inspections, and the
notification that was given was inaccurate and often untimely. None of the letters sent to property owners included
information that a physical inspection was required by statute or explained the
owner's rights relating to the physical inspection beyond a statement regarding
the right to an interior inspection. As a result, Jackson County property owners
may not have known they were entitled to an exterior inspection and to request
an interior inspection, and were denied the benefit of these physical
inspections before their timeline for appeal expired.
"We're
still in the initial stages of our audit but it has already become abundantly
clear that the Jackson County Assessor's Office violated the law by providing
untimely and legally deficient notification during the assessment
process," said Fitzpatrick. "I urge the Jackson County Legislature to
take our concerns into consideration and explore all possible remedies for the
thousands of innocent homeowners wronged by an invalid process. I would also
tell Jackson County residents who saw their home values increase by more than
15 percent that if I were in their shoes, and felt my assessment was unfair, I
would pay my taxes under protest and plan to pursue remedies available to me by
law based on my individual circumstances in the event the County does not
remedy the flawed assessments."
Fitzpatrick said the
Jackson County Legislature, County Executive, and Assessor should determine
what remedies are available, such as limiting 2023 assessed valuation increases
to 15 percent, using prior year assessed valuations, or allowing additional appeals and/or tax protests;
then notify taxpayers of these remedies, and allow adequate
time for the taxpayers to pursue such remedies.
During
the biennial reassessment process for 2023, approximately 200,000 residential properties
had an assessed valuation increase of more than 15 percent, which required a
physical inspection per state law and triggered the right of the property
owners to request an interior inspection.
The Jackson County
Assessment Department indicated they initially prepared approximately 50,000
notification letters from April to June of 2023. These letters included
the percentage increase of market value, an inaccurate statement on the
property owner's rights to request an interior inspection, and a link to
dispute the assessed valuation. The department did not send these letters to
all 200,000 applicable taxpayers during that timeframe because department
officials felt it would have placed an excessive demand on department personnel
and resources.
The department also
used a mailing service contractor to send a more generalized letter to all
taxpayers regardless of the amount of their assessment. The letters were
undated and included similar information contained in the first but did not
include the percentage increase in assessed value, which caused taxpayers to
have to calculate the change to determine if they could request an interior
inspection, and incorrectly characterized the right to request an inspection.
If many of the letters were sent on or near June 15 as the Jackson County
Assessment Department claims, homeowners who took the allowed 30 days to
request and receive an interior inspection would not have been able to use that
information to consider an appeal with the Board of Equalization by the July 10
deadline that was stated in the letter.
Data provided by the
Jackson County Assessment Department shows only 760 letters were sent prior to
an external inspection being performed. While this is allowable under state
law, statute also requires that a requested interior inspection be done at the
same time as an exterior inspection. This would necessitate a new exterior
inspection be performed in conjunction with an interior inspection requested by
the homeowner. However, officials from Tyler Technologies, which performed a
portion of the interior inspections, indicated they were not contractually
required to, and did not, perform exterior inspections when conducting interior
inspections.
The initial
results are part of an ongoing audit of the Jackson County Assessment
Department that began on September 25. Fitzpatrick said his office will
continue its thorough review of the assessment process with the intent of
releasing a final report in 2024.
"The
people of Jackson County have every right to be outraged by the failure of the
assessment department to accurately and timely notify homeowners of their
rights. As a result of their abdication of duty, an immense and
unwarranted burden has been placed on the citizens they were entrusted to
serve," said Fitzpatrick. "We will continue to look at every aspect
of the assessment process, including whether the physical inspections that were
done complied with state law, with the goal of giving taxpayers the complete
picture of what happened and what needs to change so that it doesn't happen
again."
The
preliminary results are available here.
