Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 3 · column 2 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
bers, a third of whom must be realtors.
This year, the BOE consisted of Henry Hudson, Emile Smet, and realtor Amy Sloane Timbers . They function as a kind of non-political shortstop for the Board of Assessors, who are appointed by the Board of Supervisors. The role of the BOE is to check the work of the BOA, fixing mistakes, catching what they missed, and attempting to insure that similar properties in the county are assessed at similar values.
Because the Board of Assessors must survey so many properties, it is very easy for them to miss features that may affect the value of a given property, like finished basements or additional structures not visible from the road. Cases where this may have happened are flagged for the attention of the BOE by the Commissioner of Revenue. Such corrected mistakes can raise or lower the value of a given property, and account for about a third of the estimated 1500 adjusted assessments, according to Commissioner of Revenue Beverly Atkins. Aside from correcting mistakes on individual properties, the Board of Equalization also examines broader decisions by the Board of Assessors. Part of the assessor’s job is setting the value of various categories of real estate. When the value of these categories is set, then the value of all properties within that category is adjusted accordingly by the Board of Assessors. Those categorical decisions are eventually examined by the Board of Equalization, which can adjust any they decide to be incorrect.
Evening it out
The primary example of this situation from this year’s reassessment is an adjustment for property fronted by a gravel road. The BOA and Blue Ridge Mass Appraisals originally deducted 10 percent of the total real estate value from any property that was on a gravel road, on the basis that an unpaved road was less attractive to real estate buyers and meant a lower market value.
‘That’s not the case in Rappahannock,” said Timbers, who explained that in Rappahannock’s real estate market, buyers are seeking a secluded country lifestyle and a dirt road is viewed as attractive on property. Accordingly, the BOE removed that adjustment, and all the properties that benefited from it originally will receive letters of adjustment form the Commissioner of Revenue.
A second decision by the BOE that will effect a large number of property owners involves the value of property in Amissville.
According to Timbers and
94.2%