Fremont County property owners have begun receiving their Notices of Valuation (NOV's) in the mail from the Fremont County Assessor's Office. Assessor Stacey Seifert says 2009 is a reassessment year in Colorado which takes place every two years. Seifert says after mailing the NOV's last week, her staff has already begun handling protests that will come into her office in the coming weeks.
The recessionary downturn in housing prices is sure to prompt a lot of questions as to why values listed on the NOV's do not reflect what is happening in the market place. Seifert reminds property owners that state law requires that the values reflected on the notices are based upon estimated property values at the end of June, 2008.
Seifert adds that the valuation increases were not as substantial as expected. She says that close to 50 percent of properties countywide saw a slight decrease in value.
Seifert said for those properties that saw valuation increases, many of them may not have been updated in the 2007 reassessment and are now just catching up to the 2008 values. She said there were other properties that saw value increases due to assessment errors or because of improvements that were made to the property.
For property owners choosing to protest their values, they can do so in person at the Fremont County Assessor's Office by June 1st. Written protests must be postmarked no later than June 1st. The Assessor's Office will have until the end of June to mail out a notice of final determination of value. If the property owner is still not happy with that value a further protest can be made in writing to the Board of Equalization no later than July 15th. The Board of Equalization will then conduct protest hearings starting in July.
The recessionary downturn in housing prices is sure to prompt a lot of questions as to why values listed on the NOV's do not reflect what is happening in the market place. Seifert reminds property owners that state law requires that the values reflected on the notices are based upon estimated property values at the end of June, 2008.
Seifert adds that the valuation increases were not as substantial as expected. She says that close to 50 percent of properties countywide saw a slight decrease in value.
Seifert said for those properties that saw valuation increases, many of them may not have been updated in the 2007 reassessment and are now just catching up to the 2008 values. She said there were other properties that saw value increases due to assessment errors or because of improvements that were made to the property.
For property owners choosing to protest their values, they can do so in person at the Fremont County Assessor's Office by June 1st. Written protests must be postmarked no later than June 1st. The Assessor's Office will have until the end of June to mail out a notice of final determination of value. If the property owner is still not happy with that value a further protest can be made in writing to the Board of Equalization no later than July 15th. The Board of Equalization will then conduct protest hearings starting in July.