THE CHIEF'S APPRAISAL: Appraisal notices are out; check yours carefully
The 2011 appraisal notices have all been mailed. If you own property for which you did not receive a notice, you need to call us so we can send you a notice. The law requires us to appraise all taxable property; however, it is your responsibility to ensure that your property appraisal is accurate. Because it is ultimately your responsibility to notify us of any disagreements in your appraisal, we must notify you of our determination of the market and appraised value of your property. Appraisal notices are required to be mailed if the property is reappraised. In Ector County, all property is reappraised every year. All appraisal districts in Texas are required to reappraise at least once every three years.
The protest deadline was June 1, unless your notice reflects a later date. However, as time permits, the appraisers will continue to hold informal meetings with property owners. If you have evidence that you could not sell your property for the market value we have listed, you need to provide that evidence for our consideration. Values cannot be changed after certification on July 25.
We have had several calls concerning the increase in value on accounts with mobile homes; so I’d like to devote a couple of paragraphs to the topic and briefly explain the mass appraisal process as it relates to site improvements.
Let’s start with some definitions. By definition, land is an undeveloped portion of the earth’s surface distinguishable by boundaries or ownership. Improvement is defined as a building, structure, fixture, or fence erected on or affixed to land. The definition of site is land that is improved so that it is ready to be used for a specific purpose. The improvements may be either “off-site”; for example, roads, curbs and sidewalks, utilities, and access or, “on-site”; for example, landscaping, patios, walks, water wells, sprinklers, fencing and sewer/septic systems.
On our appraisal notices, you will notice that we indicate the property value of the land separate from the value of structures and other improvements. We do this because the Texas Property Tax Code requires us to do so. I’ll be the first to say that making the determination of how much of the property value is attributable to the land and how much of the value is in the structures or improvements is not an exact science, nor is it easy to do. However, there are generally accepted methods and techniques that were used to make the determination. Appraisals of improved property involve the analysis and valuation of a site.
The Texas Property Tax Code requires us to appraise all taxable property at its market value. Market value, simply stated, is the price at which the property would sell. For single family residential and commercial properties, site costs for utilities and sewer/septic systems are typically included in the land value. In commercial property, costs for asphalt are typically reflected as a site improvement value. For mobile home lots, site costs for utilities and sewer/septic systems (commonly referred to as hookups) are reflected as site improvements and included in our records as improvements.
Because the housing market demand this past year has been greater than the supply, lots that have hookups and can accommodate mobile homes are selling for more than lots that do not have the utilities in place. We have seen the value of mobile home property rise and fall over the years with the oil economy. There have been times when there was no value in the hookups because the housing market as a whole was in a slump. Then there have been times, such as we are seeing now, where the available lots with hookups are few and far between. We discovered during our most recent sales analysis study that we were under appraised on land that had been equipped with utilities and sewer/septic systems to accommodate mobile homes because we were not, in many cases, including the site improvement costs in our appraisal. That led to a focus this year on equalization and uniformity of the mobile home properties. The average increase when we added the utility and sewer site costs was as much as $6,500. That increase brought the appraised values closer to actual current market value.
Our appraisal district website at www.ectorcad.org shows the market value for all property on the appraisal roll. You can make comparisons for yourself as to the equity and uniformity of the district’s proposed values. If you find discrepancies, we do want to know about it.
