Associated Appraisal to perform interior, exterior inspections
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
Homeowners in the Village of East Troy will be receiving a letter at the end of April from Associated Appraisal letting them know when the village-wide appraisals will begin.
The village contracted with Associated Appraisal for re-evaluation of all the properties in the village this year.
Village Administrator Eileen Suhm said the re-evaluations are being done because the last time a full re-evaluation was done was in 2002 with a market update performed in 2007.
“The State of Wisconsin requires the assessed value of each major class of property to be within 10 percent of the full value in one of the prior four years,” Suhm wrote in a March 4 letter to homeowners. “We have received a non-compliance notice from the State, which requires us to take action to address the issue. To clarify this, properties are classified into categories with the most common being residential or commercial. If any one category of property is not within the 10 percent, it can trigger the municipality to be in non-compliance.”
Suhm said Tuesday, the village has been out of compliance with state requirements for the last two years.
She also wanted area homeowners to know this wasn’t about increasing their taxes, it was about making sure the village was assessing properties and taxing homeowners fairly.
“When you’re not doing regular evaluations of properties the assessments are not fair. People think it’s a method for us to increase revenue, but that’s really not the case, it’s more of a re-distribution of the taxes, to make sure it’s done in a fair and equitable way.
“Unless your house experienced a sharper increase in value that the village was aware of, you’re going to see a similar move of your taxes as everyone else,” she continued. “Generally, if the village over-all assessed value goes up, your mill rate goes down, and vice versa. It’s a really a re-distribution as opposed to an increase.”
Associated Appraisal
Associated Appraisal was contracted by the Village of Waterford last year to re-evaluate its residential properties and the process took far longer than anticipated. It also drew the wrath of several village officials when Associated had only inspected about 56 percent of the interior of the properties by December.
Because some of the Village of Waterford officials were unhappy with Associated Appraisal’s performance, they halted payment to the company in December to review the situation. The Waterford Village Board Monday night was still in negotiations with Associated Appraisal about payment and board members took turns blasting the company’s owner for the problems created in the village by the assessment process.
To date, 66 percent of the properties in the Village of Waterford have had their interiors inspected. A number Waterford officials contend is far below what the village was expecting from Associated Appraisal.
Suhm said because of similar issues with past re-evaluations (with different companies), the Village of East Troy board members and administration was being very careful about what was contracted with Associated Appraisal.
“We even have one board member who always asks if the got the signatures of the homeowners when the homes are inspected,” Suhm said. “We will be keeping a very close watch on them while this is going on.”
Suhm said if homeowners have concerns about the process or want more information, they can call her at (262) 684-5482.
“The assessors will be driving Associated Appraisal vehicles, with Associated Appraisal on the side,” she said. “They also will have some kind of identification with them and they will have a letter from the village about the appraisals. Homeowners can always call our office to verify if they’re in the area.”
Suhm did want to add that if a homeowner refuses to allow the appraisal company into their home for an interior inspection they may lose their right to contest their assessment.
“The board of review doesn’t have to hear their case if they refused entry,” she said.
Correspondent Dave Fidlin contributed to this report.
