Boulder County property value appeals
Owners of properties located in Boulder County who intend to appeal the notices of value the Boulder County Assessor’s Office has assigned to their properties can do so online, by mail, by fax or in person — but must do so on or before June 1.
Online appeals can be made through links on the assessor’s website, BoulderCountyAssessor.org.
Mailed or faxed appeals: Can be sent by conventional mail to the Boulder County Assessor’s Office, P.O. Box 471, Boulder CO 80306 or faxed to 303-441-4996. Mailed appeals must be postmarked by 11:59 p.m. June 1.
In-person appeals can be made during regular working hours at the Boulder County assessor’s main office on the second floor of the downtown Boulder Courthouse, 1325 Pearl St., which is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays but will be closed for Memorial Day on May 29.
Other locations for in-person appeals::
• Boulder’s George Reynolds Branch Library, 3595 Table Mesa Drive, from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. May 22 and May 26.
• Boulder County government’s St. Vrain Community Hub, in the St. Vrain Conference Room, 529 Coffman St.: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.May 15-19 and May 22-26 for residential property appeals; 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. May 17 and May 24 for commercial property appeals.
Boulder County Assessor Cindy Braddock reminded property owners Friday that June 1 is the deadline for property owners to file appeals of the new values her office has assigned to those properties.
Braddock, whose office mailed more than 119,400 “2017 Notices of Value” on May 1, said that as of Friday morning, the office had received 1,847 appeals.
“It’s still early in the month, and the appeals start to come in greater numbers later in the month,” Braddock said.
“Property owners can file an appeal if they believe their property has not been valued appropriately,” Braddock said.
She said that for owners considering appeals to make the most accurate possible property value comparisons, they should review and include information about what the sales data for the real estate market for comparable properties on or before June 30, 2016.
Braddock said in an interview that after her staff considers the appeals it’s getting this month, her office will send “notices of determination” to those property owners by Aug. 31.
Property owners who are dissatisfied with the assessor’s decisions when they get those determination notices can then appeal to the County Board of Equalization. If they’re not satisfied with that county board’s ruling, they can further appeal to the state Board of Assessment Appeals, or to district court, or can go through an arbitration process.
However, in order to be eligible to go to any of those next levels to appeal their assigned property values, they first must start with filing appeals with the county assessor’s office.
The Boulder County Assessor’s Office, in determining the values it assigned to properties, based those values on market activity prior to last June 30. Neither the assessor nor property owners can adjust those officially set county values on the basis of real estate markets after last June 30.
While the latest biennial notices of value that Braddock’s office has assigned to properties are based on the changes in those properties’ values between mid-2014 and mid-2016, she said market values of many of those properties has continued to increase since last June 30.
That, she said, reflects a continuation of real estate values going up “at a significant pace, based on high demand for a limited supply of properties for sale” — something she said has occurred “all across the Front Range.”
While the assessor’s office cannot increase its latest assigned values to account for those increases since mid-2016, “the real estate market in Boulder County has continued at a strong pace,” Braddock said.
“Residential sales figures continue to rise, and many homeowners may find that their homes are worth more today in the current real-estate transaction market than assessments indicate from nearly a year ago,” Braddock said.
Commercial and industrial properties also are showing higher values since mid-2016, she said, and “apartment complexes have also seen similar increases … due to high occupancy and rental rates.”
John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc
