Villages of Quechee • White River Junction • Hartford • West Hartford • Wilder
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The list of all properties in Town and their assessments is referred to as the Grand List. The primary duty of the Listers' Office is to maintain this list as accurately and equitably as possible. The valuation [listing] year runs from April 1 to the following March 31. Thus, for any given year, the owner and condition of a property should be as of April 1.
If your property is destroyed or seriously damaged at any point during the course of the tax year, you may request an abatement of your taxes. Details of this process are available through the Town Clerk's Office.
Most activities and dates are mandated by State Statute as follows:
April 1 - All taxable real property in town is assessed [listed] at fair market value, adjusted by the equalization ratio, as determined by the state
April 15 - Last day to file the HS-122 Homestead Declaration form, which entitles you to be taxed at the Homestead School Tax Rate, without a late penalty. This form is available in your income tax booklet, on line at www.state.vt.us/tax
May 1 - Notices of eligibility for Disabled Veteran exemptions are due in this Office
June - The values for the tax year are finalized by the Listers and Assessor and the Abstract of the Grand List is lodged. At this time notices are mailed to all taxpayers who have had changes in their assessed values. Within 14 days, any taxpayer who wants to grieve (appeal) an assessment must contact the Lister's Office to set up an appointment. Grievances are not limited to only those taxpayers with assessment changes. Any taxpayer may grieve in any year. If you wish to be notified of the grievance time period, you may call our office and request notification.
June/July - Grievance appeals begin 14 days after change notices are mailed.
July - Tax bills are mailed to property owners as of April 1. The first installment is due in August, the second in February. Only one bill is mailed, with two stubs, one for each payment.
In addition to the above activities, since the 1999 townwide reappraisal, the Listers' Office has been re-inspecting a fifth of the town each year. All properties within an area are, at the minimum, re-measured on the outside. Letters are mailed to all properties owners within the selected neighborhood requesting interior inspections. By doing this, our physical data is kept current. This can also save money should the State require us to complete another townwide reappraisal, as it did in 2007, when the reappraisal company that assisted us did not have to re-inspect all the properties in Town. Should a taxpayer refuse an interior inspection, we will rely on old records and the exterior inspection to estimate the interior. This can lead to errors, not always in favor of the taxpayer. If you have questions about this process, please call or e-mail our office.
As time passes after a townwide revaulation, market conditions will typically change. These changes do not affect all segments of the real estate market to the same degree. This is particularly true over the past year, during which time there has been an overall softening of the market, reflected primarily in longer marketing times and increased inventory.
As part of our job as Listers and Assessors, we track market changes to assure that no one segment of the market is excessively over or under assessed. During 2007, several condominium projects did experience a decrease in market value as evidenced by numerous sale prices much lower than the assessments. Conversely a couple of complexes had recent sale prices considerably higher than the assessments. Thus, for the 2008-2009 tax year, assessments for these condominiums were appropriately adjusted.
It must be stressed that one or two high or low sales are not enough to justify changes to an entire property class or neighborhood. We must see a clear trend in order to make adjustments. Likewise, properties for sale cannot be considered alone as evidence to make changes. Good assessment practice, as well as State guidelines, require bona fide sale transactions to document property class or neighborhood adjustments. More information on Fair Market Value determination can be found in elsewhere on this site.