Fair market value: How will revaluation affect my Bladen County property?

DUBLIN — Bladen County property owners are expected to get notices of new property values later this year.

The last revaluation was done in 2015, and the state requires it at least once every eight years. Gary Piner and Renee McGinnis, of Piner Appraisal, shared a presentation and answered questions about the process in which they’ve been hired to participate during last week’s county commissioners retreat at the Findt Workforce Development Building on the campus of Bladen Community College.

“It’s important for citizens to understand that the overall goal of revaluation is to increase equity and fairness by making assessments more uniform across the county,” said Renee’ Davis, the tax administrator for the county. “Since existing property values were established when the last revaluation was completed in 2015, this reappraisal will reset property values to their current market value so that the property tax burden is equalized for all taxpayers.”

Davis said the notices will be mailed either late this year or in early 2022.

“There will then be sufficient opportunity for taxpayers to meet informally with staff regarding the basis of their value and any concerns that they may have,” she said.

McGinnis said the properties will be considered current market value as of Jan. 1, 2022. She said values currently are at 93 percent; the goal is 100 percent.

McGinnis outlined a process that involves field work, sales study, developing a schedule of values, and then a review. The adoption of the schedule of values happens after being submitted to the commissioners, review by the public, and a public hearing. There’s a 30-day window after that for appeal.

McGinnis and Piner indicated they are aware of concerns particularly in the area near Chemours, where GenX has been found in groundwater and wells. The company has poured millions into improvements, but residents in the area remain skeptical. Piner said he’s talked to some already, who not surprisingly told him they felt their property was worthless.

The appraisers asked about meeting ahead of time with the residents near Chemours. Commissioners dissuaded them on that effort. Commissioner Mark Gillespie asked about the impact of hog farms, given the recent lawsuits that were settled between Smithfield and farmers in multiple counties, including Bladen.

“What we can do is look in the area, to pinpoint sales, to see if there’s been any effect,” McGinnis said. “We can’t let personal feelings get in the way, because the market may not support it.”

The new values will go onto tax bills in the summer of 2022.

State law allows for a number of factors to be analyzed: type, use, size, quality, style, condition and location are part of it for the properties, but there is also recent market sales, trends, replacement costs and other factors that achieve what is considered “fair market value.”

Market value, a release from the Bladen County Tax Office says, is “the price estimated in terms of money at which the property would change hands between a willing and financially able buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of all the uses to which the property is adapted and for which it is capable of being used.”

Changes through construction or zoning can lead to the tax value being altered in between appraisals.

The revaluation process does not necessarily mean annual tax bills will change for each property in the county. The tax bill is calculated by multiplying the tax value by the tax rate, which is determined each year by each taxing jurisdiction, the county says.

The county also says the increase or decrease of the tax base is not a consideration in establishing current market values.