Board of Equalization Meeting   6/23/2022

and I will start with a statement I must read and then here it goes.

This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with ordinance number 20A6.

Next up, identify the members that are physically and electronically present.

The members we have present today are myself, Anthony Arsali, Bob Beard, David Ferrell, Karen Pape and Evan Mayo and they are all present here electronically.

and we expect a Waki Wynn in a little bit shortly.

And the remainder of the statement is that the public has the opportunity to access and participate in the electronic meeting through phone, computer or tablet.

Directions on how to connect are located on the Albemarle County website.

The failure to state these items neither makes the electronic meeting illegal nor invalidates any action taken at the meeting.

So my next item here is as chairman, there's a quorum.

We have a quorum, we have five of our six members.

The next item on our agenda is approval of the minutes of the May 9th, 2022 meeting.

Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes that David prepared?

Yes.

Oh, I did not.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Yes.

The call to order should have happened first.

The call to order, we'll say it was at 1.02 PM just prior to my start.

And I see that Waki is here as well.

So, okay.

So we have our quorum.

We actually have all six members of the board present at this time.

Now going to the approval of the minutes.

Yes.

Okay, nods by everyone.

Okay.

We had one change.

The adjournment on number eight, Billy, will change that.

Okay.

Thanks Karen.

A second?

I'll second.

Thanks Evan.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

That's everyone.

Okay, thank you.

Before we go to our first hearing today, let's review and approve the rules of procedure.

Mr. Lynch sent over a copy of the most recent rules of procedure that we went over and discussed with the reversions that we made.

I sent an email with respect to paragraph 8.6 based on the minutes that Mr. Farrell provided.

That was the language we discussed at the last meeting.

Is there anyone want to discuss the rules of procedure beyond that?

Okay.

A second?

I got it.

Bob, it's a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right, so our rules of procedure are set and approved.

So let's move on to our first hearing.

So, and I apologize if I, so this is application number two.

The property address is 1210 Hunter's Ridge Road, and the owners are the Thadathills, and sorry if I mispronounced that.

So this is, before we get started, let me go ahead and just kind of explain the procedure and who we are.

So good afternoon and welcome.

We're the Board of Equalization.

The board is comprised of six citizens of Albemarle County.

We're appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

We act as an independent board to review these tax appeals.

So how the hearing will work is as follows.

The applicants will have 20 minutes to present their case.

The assessor will then have 20 minutes to present their case.

And the applicants will have five minutes for rebuttal.

During the hearing, it's possible that members of the board may stop and ask questions just to get clarification while we're going through this.

One note I do want to bring up for the applicants, it should have been in the materials, is the fact that, just note that per Virginia law, there is a presumption of correctness.

So the presumption is that the assessment is correct.

So the burden of proof is on the applicant to show that it's not.

And one last, was that, was there something there?

So before we begin, let's go ahead and swear in the witnesses.

So whoever's gonna be testifying as to this case, this hearing, please raise your right hand and yeah, just let me know yes afterwards.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that a testimony, both oral and documentary, which you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

and okay, second guess is from everyone.

Okay, thank you all.

All right, and this is for the applicants.

Before we begin, any questions you may have for us?

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

So good afternoon.

First of all, I'd like to go ahead and introduce ourselves and then we can go ahead with the case.

My name is Jacob.

This is my wife, Denise, and we are the owners of the home of 1210, Hunters Ridge Road.

And I'd like to thank you all for taking this opportunity

in allowing us to present our case for uniform topic of our home and to assess the value of our home compared to our two neighbors, again, to assess that value.

So our neighbors' homes, their address is 1190.

and the other one is 1230.

And you can see that that was provided in the material sent to you for comparison purposes.

So we will be comparing the three homes and assess the value that has been increased from 2021 to 2022.

When we first received the accounting assessment report, our home was assessed, was valued at increased by 18.4% compared to the two neighbors home assessment, which was around 8.9%.

So we requested the county office for the assessment review and they had sent one assessor to our home.

They checked the property and inside the house, they sent us a reassessed home value report

Though the reassessed total value was decreased by 7,000, the reassessed value is almost doubled at 16.2% compared to the two neighbors home, which values increased from 2021 to 2022.

So I would like to take the opportunity to discuss the uniform after reviewing some documents set by Mr. Peter Lynch that was sent over to us.

which the document includes our home at the address of 121 Hunter Ridge Road, the cost report, 1210 Hunter's Ridge Road property record card, a complete grade guide, 2022.

And fourth, what was sent was the 2022 residential

Valuation, Model Description.

Both Denise and I reviewed this.

The county cost report showed the cost rate for our home is SIN, which is a code that was used.

And the base rate

They used was $113.60, which was puzzling because when looking at the 2022 residential valuation model description document, it showed the base rate at $113.

And so we use that number of $113 to compute our home value and other units to see if

The new assessed value would be uniform.

So we reviewed the document Complete Grade Guide 2022 and found that the county office assigned county grade

of B2, B2, good minus two to our house while they assigned county grade something different, which was at the grade of B2, C plus one, average plus or minus several on Hunter's Ridge Road.

and their house size square feet range within the county grade definition states 1,800 to 2,200.

However, our house should get the county grade of C plus one

average plus quality, as our house total square feet, 1,556, which is within the county grade definition.

Again, states 1,400 to 2,200.

So we use that grade factor

of 1.12 for a house grade.

Again, 1.12 for the house grade of C1 plus one.

Sorry, give me just a moment.

Okay, let me say that again.

So we use the grade factor 1.12 for the house grade to assess the house value at C1 plus one average plus to compute the house value for justification.

The county office used that grade factor 1.2 for the house grade that was given to us at B2B2, good minus two.

and that was not in the computed rate when purchasing the house.

Next, for the unit value additions, we reviewed the county cost report and we used the same five unit values which include

the bathroom, the fireplace, cooling type, garage and porch to compute the home value.

We removed the exterior wall value.

And the reason for that is

The house has cedar siding, which is part of the house grade of C1 plus one average plus.

We also removed the storage shed, valued as is, since it already included in the outbuilding items of the property record card.

We saw that it was doubled and did not understand why.

Based on the above mentioned changes, we computed the RCN value at 261,540 compared to the county's RCN value, which was at 291,385, which stood higher.

So what I just explained was the reasoning for this appeal.

So we reviewed the exterior items which were valued on the property record card, the county report,

We computed a total with the life expectancy of the generator at 100 years.

And we didn't, without realizing that, realizing that that was not realistic.

We've used it for 25 years.

And so the generator

Life expectancy should decrease by two years of depreciation.

And that was installed back in 2019.

The value of the generator from the 2020 residential valuation model document

is valued at 7,500 opposed to 8,300 which was shown on the county report.

We found that to be incorrect.

We computed and so this information and found that the added discount valued at 6,900

For the storage shed, we use that value of $33.84 per square feet, which came from the document and added its value with the 70% discount

excuse me, 30% discount, which left the life expectancy of 70% and found that the value of the shed was at $4,548.

So we don't have any appeal for the property value.

So we added the, excuse the interpreter, we added the same land value at $105,800 and got the new house value at $344,788.21.

The new assessment increased its percentage by 8.39% that will be uniform to the neighbor's home value increase.

So collectively with the property value from 2022, the value again would be at $344,788.21.

Or in other words, it would be $344,800.

The 25,000 decrease, excuse me, it's 25,000 less than what the county reports reassessed value is, which was stated at $369 and 800.

So the county's report is decreased, it increased by how much?

So again, the county's reassessed value is at $369,800.

And as I explained my reasoning through this presentation, we found that it's $344,800, which is a difference of $25,000 less to what we found.

So based on that,

The house value has increased from 2021 to 2022.

Let me look.

8.39%, which would be uniform to our neighbors surrounding us.

So that is our case and I have presented it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

I don't have any questions at this point.

Do any other members of the board have any questions right now?

Getting nods of no.

Mr. Arsali, I will get and only because I

on what we submitted to you.

Mr. Fattahil was correct.

The two properties that he provided in the list in the document where we list the subject and the two variables, they are C plus one grade and not B minus two that we indicate on that piece of paper.

So I just wanted to straighten that out before we start talking here.

and then Jim, is that what you found?

How's that?

Yes.

Okay.

I inspected the property on March 23rd, as the property owner said, did an interior inspection.

who measured the house, took photos.

I met with the owners and an ALS interpreter.

We discussed the assessment, the recent purchase.

They purchased the property.

Let's see here.

They purchased the property on October 29th, 2021 for $395,000.

Went over the property details verified

that two of the bedrooms have carpet and then there's hardwood throughout the rest of the house.

We revised the depreciation from good to average on the interior inspection and then the grade was changed to B-2.

The house was left in average condition.

There was a small 2%

So that's the inspection of the property and the updating of the information based on that.

Yes, correct.

So the Thaddeusville's raised a kind of uniformity question or defense on the value of there's no uniformity of the change in percent change of properties from one year to the next.

They can change differently based on different inputs that are included, styles of home and stuff like that, but they can also change based on the updating of information.

So quite often when a property sells, we get more information on a property and we update the information that causes the overall value to change differently than it would

if it hadn't been updated.

Also, I just wanted to respond, Mr. Fattahill,

I mentioned that, among other things, that they exclude the exterior wall value because the exterior wall was included in the grade.

I believe that's what he said.

But the exterior wall as an item of the cost approach is sort of a valuation model.

is there in all properties.

So whatever the exterior wall type is will determine what that amount that we used in the model.

And it's separate.

It might be an item that's included in determining the grade, but it's a separate item in the valuation of the property.

So taking that out of valuation of his home would make it not uniform with all the other properties in the account.

Not specifically.

Does anyone, is that all for these answers?

Okay.

I just need clarification.

The board members have the information that we provided about the property.

Yeah, I just want to make sure everyone is cognizant of the last sentence of the appraiser's report.

This house was listed for public

Records will show that this house was listed for $345,000 and it sold rather quickly for $395,000.

So the applicant paid $50,000 over the list price.

We can only assume that there was competing offers to get this property.

So I'm a little confused as to why if the applicant just paid $395,000, the applicant says it's now worth $344,000.

Yeah, sorry if I wasn't clear, yeah.

So you just paid $395.

I'm very happy that you asked that.

We had sold our previous home in Northern Virginia.

We moved our thing into a storage unit.

The two of us, we were looking for a home.

We made the offer on some houses, which then were turned down due to high competition.

We were outfitted.

And because we were running out of time, that home where we purchased it, we really liked the environment surrounding it.

Our realtor,

notified us that the previous owners did have other offers.

But we said that we wanted to get this house.

And so then we went ahead and we did the highest bid.

And so from that is how we were able to get our home.

And then following it, there were some complications.

We were told that

So our agent had notified us that the property was at high value, which was over $400,000.

And that was through mortgage.

Excuse me.

So we wanted to go with the budget of 400,000.

So we really didn't need that house, but the agent had warned us and told us that there was not a lot of value.

But we were looking for some place to live.

Excuse me.

We were looking for some place to live, but the agent did warn us that it was not worth the value.

But we went ahead and put forth the offer.

And that's when they accepted our offer from $400,000 to $305,000.

and so that is why we purchased it.

But it was due to high competition, due to the housing market being extremely hot.

And of course this was during the pandemic.

It was a risk we took, I am aware of that.

Thank you.

Mr. Arsali, if I could just make the comment that that is the market, what Ms.

that people were paying above asking the price.

And that becomes the value once you're analyzing all the sales that took place in 2020.

Okay, thank you.

And we're gonna have the, are we gonna have an opportunity to do the rebuttal as well still?

I do, I have two questions.

My first question has to do with that shed.

And so I know that the appellant said that he took that cost out because he thought it had been included twice.

Peter, could you address that please?

Well, it looks I think from what he was saying there, it's included in the cost approach under storage shed.

Is that included in the cost approach for the house?

You've got the storage shed.

I'm working at the cost sheet that we provided the fat bills, and it's not an item on the cost for the house.

It is included as an outbuildment, which would be added to the total.

It's not included in the cost workup for the house, the building itself, but it's included in an outbuilding, which is added to the building value afterwards.

So the items that are included in the building itself are the full bathroom,

I can probably interject too, Pete.

In the original cost report on the property, the shed was actually sketched with the house and that was removed

from the sketch because it was a carryover from our old system to the new system.

And it's something that you couldn't tell unless you had the sketch in full screen.

So the shed was moved into the outbuilding field where it should have been listed anyway.

So for clarification, so on your sheet, the property record card, you have a $2,300 value for the storage building.

On the cost sheet on the units value addition, it says sketch area storage shed as approximately $6,500.

Actually, the distortion value that was on the sketch that was removed from the sketch and that value was added into the outbuilding.

I'd like to interject.

In 2022,

The residential value of the model for the outside, excuse me, building the value was $33.84 per square feet.

So calculating the shed based off of that was at $192.

excuse me, 192 square feet, plus the discount of 30%, which leaves it at 70%, totaling to $4,548, not 9,000 as that was just said.

I'd like to know why it is valued at such a high rate.

And before you go into that as well, I just want to make sure we're looking at the same property record card and it hasn't been revised because if on ours for the 2022 assessment has a value of $253,500 for the building,

$2,300 for the outbuilding and $8,200 for the extra feature.

That was where the building is $253,500, outbuilding $2,300, extra feature $8,200.

And it has the extra feature as the generator, the outbuilding as the storage, and then I'm assuming the building as the building.

So that's, I just want to make sure, because I don't see that $9,000 something figure on the card I'm looking at.

That's true.

We discovered that the carryover from our old system had the shed sketched on our sketch and listed in the outbuildings.

So we removed the shed from the sketch and added that value into the outbuilding to the $2,300.

So the building value is lower then?

Do you mind sharing what those revised numbers are?

Billy, hold on a second.

So I just found in this record that for some reason the value was overridden in the outbuildings at $9,100 in the current record.

However, the value of the outbuilding that we assessed the property at for this reassessment was $2,300 for the outbuilding.

So I think the $9,100 is erroneous.

But does that building value of $253,500 is that also have the, does that include the storage as part of that $253,500?

It does not.

Okay.

So the storage is simply being valued at $2,300.

Well below.

Okay.

So that's like a non-issue.

The generator is being valued at $200.

And I know there was some,

there was some, they're proposing it should be at 7500.

But, and Karen, I don't know if you don't want to hijack your line of questioning.

The only one other question I just had, and then I'll jump back.

It's just the, I think the only other thing I saw was the grade, which is you have this as the B minus two and the other two comparables are like two neighbors or C plus one.

That was based on the inspection of the property we did in March.

We were using the C plus one.

Prior to the original value, we reported that we were using C plus one and we were using good condition.

As a result of the review, we changed it to average condition and a B minus two.

I do have one other question.

On the appellant's

Spreadsheet that talks about the three comparables.

They have the square footage of 1230 Hunter's Ridge Road at 3,010 square feet.

And in your analysis, in the assessor's analysis, I think the square footage of that building is noted as 1594 square feet.

Is that because of the square footage finished in the basement?

Have you, has that been included?

Yes.

I see.

All right.

and three thousand and ten square feet.

All right.

When I look at their home, I looked at photos through the Internet.

The basement was complete.

It's a beautiful room, it's big, and so that's what I saw, and it's not

Thank you.

Are there any other questions before I bring it, take it back to the applicants for the rebuttal?

So with the outside storage shed, the outside unit, I had looked at the housing cost report.

And what I saw was that the unit's value in total included the shed.

And that was

It was just mentioned that that was removed, but I don't see it here on this document in front of me that it has been removed.

So that's one that I am rebuttaling.

And I also shared about the computed value of our house.

and with the outdoor shed, including that outdoor shed, excuse me, at 33.84 square feet, which then was calculated at 192 square feet, which leaves the life expectancy at 70%, but then

It is equal to 4,548, whereas in your report, the cost dates 2,300.

So if you accept the 2,300, that's wonderful, rather than the 9,000.

I did pay, we did pay $395,000 for the house.

That's what the offer was.

But again, it was said that due to the market price, it did not meet the house value.

Whereas the house had originally been posted for 345,000, but because of competition in the market, it was offered at a high rate.

and the neighboring houses within the area.

So if you were to assess our neighbor's home and see what their market price was, their home would be at a higher value.

Excuse me, let me get clarification.

So if you

Assess our home value based off of what we paid for because of the market being so high.

You can do the same thing to our neighbor's home and anyone surrounding.

You can predict what the market price would be.

And of course the house value then goes up.

So it doesn't make a difference.

but it comes down to the value of the home based off of the home material.

And one more thing about the exterior, the exterior side that was also explained with the house sprayed.

the one plus one average plus, but it is not B2B2.

The total square feet is outside of what our square footage is, where our home is that 1,556 square feet.

So I feel that given that grade at B2B2 is not accurate.

So the grade factor of 1.12 was, sorry,

Well, thank you very much.

I'd add one more thing.

I understand that argument.

Again, thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you for presenting.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna go ahead and confer, make a decision, and we will send you our decision in the mail.

It probably should get to you within the next two weeks.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

This is Denise.

Thank you.

This is Jacob.

Thank you so much for providing the sign language interpreter as to ensure effective communication to the board of equalization.

This is my, hopefully this was a good experience with you, whether it's been your first time working with somebody that is deaf or hard of hearing and that it could continue in the future.

All righty.

All right, is there any discussion on this?

We have a few minutes here.

Most likely.

Yeah.

The only, and it looks like based on

What's there that it actually was the lower obviously lower grade but better condition which I'm assuming that would probably be a wash.

Is there any other explanation for the fact that, I understand the sale is right before it, which is kind of clear as indicator of value.

But is there, I know they're really focusing on this cost idea.

It appears that the generator was added this year.

Is that right?

It wasn't added before.

So that was part of that jump, the 8,200.

So that was one thing.

Anything, I mean, really the delta at that point is not much if you take out the 8,200 between those other two, with those other properties.

Is there anything else?

Was there anything else there?

No, sir.

Okay.

I do have one other question.

His argument about this exterior wall, if the grade has been changed, is that a legitimate argument?

I don't know if I can answer if it's a legitimate argument.

All I can say is that it is a part of the model.

So whatever the siding is, it's tension and it's got natural stone.

The natural stone is going to be included at whatever our cost item for a natural stone per square foot is.

and would be considered a mansion.

So this is a B-2 and it's got that siding and the adjustment, the component or cost for that siding is included.

So the two of them don't exclude each other.

Okay, great.

I mean, if there's no discussion, I'd suggest the motion of leaving it unchanged.

Yeah, I didn't feel like they met the preponderance of evidence standard to adjust it to something else in particular.

You know, there may have been some disagreements with the methodology of the proposal, but to me, the best evidence would be the fact of purchasing it at that higher price, you know, as recently as eight months ago.

It seems to me they were a little bit surprised that the value that they paid when they bought the house is included in the assessment.

Yeah, it seems like there were frustrated at the fact that their neighbors are being assessed that lower number and

So, but I also have the effect, I don't know if the effective year built on the other, this one was 2009.

I don't know if it was earlier on those other two MPD, you don't have to worry about checking it for my purposes, but I was just, it might, that might be part of it as well, but this is just a more value.

For the sake of clarity, and maybe I missed it,

Aye.

All right.

I'm gonna hop off and hop right back on.

I've been having some computer problems.

So before the next client comes on.

All right, thank you.

Anthony, just thinking about, I know we had the interpreter just thinking about the order of procedure for the hearing.

Are we gonna try to stick to 10 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, five minutes?

It's 20, 25.

I think that made sense.

but I will also mention that the day I did the inspection, the interpreter that came was also very, very good and the property owners seemed pleased that day with the way things went with my communication during the inspection.

Yes, thank you, Jeff.

Thanks, Jeff.

So I'd like to give an update on our next applicant.

Hopefully,

They will appear.

I've contacted them twice today and emailed yesterday as a reminder of their hearing and I haven't heard anything back from them.

OK. We'll give them five minutes till 2 over 5.

And if they don't appear, then we'll just go ahead and have the assessors.

We'll review obviously their packet and the assessors and go from there.

Danielle, you just arrived, right?

I'm gonna step away for just a second.

Anthony, I'm going to add the swearing in of witnesses to my template.

Will that just always be the second item?

That'll be the, well, I did the kind of the introduction first, I guess.

And then the introduction and then swearing in of the witnesses?

Yeah, just probably.

Perfect.

Okay, that's 2.06 actually, so give them six minutes.

I just, message from Nicole with IT.

Ooh, okay.

If you could give us a few minutes so I can find out the status.

I believe they may be here, I'm not sure.

Okay.

Okay, he's here.

Good afternoon, Mr. Juranek.

We're gonna go ahead and get the hearing started.

All right.

So I'm not a stationary computer.

I am driving presently.

No, you don't.

I just wanted to make sure you could hear me and you're present.

So if you want to go ahead and turn off your camera, I think you should be fine.

Well, the complications of doing this, let me go ahead and help.

And so the controls are not obvious to me.

It's not obvious.

Thank you.

Okay.

So let me go ahead and again, good afternoon and welcome.

We're the Board of Equalization.

The board is comprised of six citizens of Albemarle County who are appointed by the board of supervisors.

We're an independent board and we'll be listening to your tax appeal today.

So here's how the hearing will work.

You will be provided with 20 minutes to present your case.

The assessor will be given 20 minutes to respond and then you will have a five minute rebuttal.

During the hearing, we may stop to ask you or the assessor questions.

Please note that per Virginia law, there is a presumption of correctness as to the assessor's assessment, so the burden of proof is on the applicant.

Before we begin, we're going to swear in the witnesses.

Mr. Jeranic, I can't see you and I don't, while you're driving, I don't really want your video on, but I do ask

And I believe we're okay without you raising your right hand, but I do need to have some kind of verbal affirmation after the swearing.

So I will have, I think, Danielle, you'll be the other witness that has not already been sworn in.

So if you can raise your right hand, please.

And this is both to you and Mr. Juranic.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony, both oral and documentary, which you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Okay, so please proceed.

Okay, well I'm sure I don't need minutes.

Okay and so my objection has to do with the unique nature of our real estate right so first of all I have a house that originally was constructed in 1890 and then has been added on to numerous times over the next hundred years so I think as a structure there's

Very little comparison.

I think that also due to the history of the house and the age of the house, I think that the issues related to the structure are serious, enduring, ongoing, and make it less than what

Others might consider a grade A residential, a grade A residence.

So I think as a homeowner, as well as somebody that potentially would be selling the home, there's a lot more liability to it intrinsically than

You can know.

And while Danielle did come out and visit the house after the initial assessment, and in particular, I took her into the basement.

No, actually, I didn't take her anywhere because she was unable to come into the house because of COVID restrictions.

We relied on photographs that I subsequently took and sent to her.

So what I'm presenting here is that I have a residence

that I have lived in for a long time with my family.

It is unique.

I think that what it looks like on paper is different than what it actually appears to be.

And I believe that the assessment which increased

I was told straight line according to all the other properties that have the characteristics of my home.

And remember, I attest that my home is very unique.

So it's hard to imagine that there's a lot of

You know, if you're going to categorize it and then say, well, everything in this category is subject to this amount of an increase, I'm going to always resist that, protest that, because I think it's not realistic.

And if you truly knew my house, you would understand that.

But you can only know the house from what you see in your data and from what Danielle was able to observe on a brief and remote visit.

And so

Another component of this is I think that the land valuation, which also increased by double digits, doesn't take into account that there's a neighborhood road that

bisects that acreage.

So I think you look at it and say, okay, it's six acres.

It's actually probably three contiguous acres on one side and then two parcels on another side, maybe three parcels on another side.

And I'm here to tell you that those parcels cannot be enjoyed as a landowner might enjoy six contiguous acres.

In fact, those parcels actually become

maintenance expenses because it's important that you maintain those parcels that the road go along.

You do so at your own expense and you do so out of respect for your neighborhood and your neighbors.

So this is another component of this property assessment that I think puts it in a different category.

I

several months ago, sent several comps looking through the MLS and trying to figure out what would be like this.

All of them, in my opinion, were stretches.

But I did the best I could in saying, you know, here are comparable properties.

And, you know, if you are to evaluate their assessments or their increases, you know, that that would be another set of data that you might put alongside

you know, the standard battle that you're using.

So these things together represent my argument for requesting a reduction in my annual assessment.

I believe that the assessment that you've given me is perhaps straight line with everyone else that has it, but no one has a property like mine.

And I don't think the value of my property is increasing at the same rate that you assess the value of others in the county.

That closes my presentation.

Thank you very much.

Does anyone on the board have any questions for Mr. Juranek at this time?

I mean, when I went out there, I walked around the outside with Mr. Juranic.

And as far as what he said, it was built in the 1800s.

It looked as if it had, like you said, there was additions that were added onto the property throughout the years.

We provided in our packet

the sales from the market area, but we also provided, so that was all of the sales from the market area, but we also provided four comparable sales that are of the same grade as this property, similar grade to this property.

They were built in different times.

One was built in 1911, one in 1900, and the other two were more recent.

and then we include the comparables that Mr. Juranich had provided also.

Obviously, we have some very large homes in the county and the fact that they've been added on to and updated is a good thing for the value of the property and not a negative.

I wanted to address specifically, Mr. Jeranic was talking about his separate, how the property was broken into two parts and split by the road.

That's fine by me.

I don't know if Mr. Juran can see it.

Again, I prefer if he's trying, he's not looking at the screen.

Okay.

Are you seeing this?

The aerial photograph?

We can see it.

OK.

So this is the property outlined in blue.

This area we are assessing, I'm gonna go back and forth between it and the property.

We are assessing this little section of 0.73 acres and it's residual land.

So the land is assessed with the home site and then the rest of the acre, the home site of two acres and then the residual land at a lower rate.

which is about 15% of the home site rate.

And so the remainder of the land over the two acres is already reduced.

And then this section of 0.73 acres is reduced another 50% for utilities.

So we are addressing the fact that this is separately located across the street from this house.

So I just want to let you know that we are.

We are addressing that.

Could you just put the stats back up?

Yes.

Yeah.

I have a question.

In your assessment of that property over which power lines go,

Do you take into account that in the last decade, our power in this neighborhood has gone out no fewer than, on average, six times a year?

And when it goes out, it stays out on average 14 hours?

And those are both data points that matter because we're in a rural,

County neighborhood that also I'll mention is in the flight path, which is a consideration when someone wants to come and buy a house.

Right.

It matters.

But but power outage here is this perhaps as severe as anywhere in the county.

I will assert that vigorously.

And in fact, we endured a power outage last night.

It happened at two in the morning and stayed out until 11 a.m. this morning.

No, it is not directly factored in, but it is factored in in the fact that we've used comparable data from the market area, which is similar and has the same influences as your property.

So, I mean, I lost power last night, just not for that long, and I'm in the neighborhood.

So noted.

Yep.

And I thank you for that.

Any questions from the board members for the assessor?

Don't see any at the moment.

I have one question myself.

So the increase, so it doesn't look like the land value was, I mean, land value was increased, but not substantially relative to the structure value.

The building value has increased over 90,000.

In terms of, is that a, is there something with the inputs that changed that?

Was the sales, what exactly, what went into that?

Billy, do you have the information on market area 114 and if the rate changed on the Williams?

We can look that up.

I'm just looking for this.

Right, so there may have been a change to either or both the land rate and the factor used on the improvements.

But we're going to have to look, we don't have that right in front of us.

We're going to have to look and see what it was last year and what it is now.

Yeah, there wasn't anything specifically about this property that changed.

Okay, yes.

There was no change to condition, grade, square footage, anything like that.

Okay.

So it's just the market area adjustments.

Yes.

And so it would be, and I understand Mr. Dranek has an objection to that, but it would be

It was similarly implemented to all the homes in that area, whatever that change was.

Are there any other questions?

Seeing none, let's move.

Well, you just asked a question, I thought.

but I think it went unanswered.

They did answer it.

So what I asked was, I asked whether or not because obviously there's the change evaluation.

So you have the different

From 2021 to 2022, the value went up 100,000.

Sometimes that value is increased because the inputs are different.

So they might find out the square footage is different or the condition is different, et cetera.

So what the assessor confirmed is there was no change made to the inputs.

So the information that they put in there is the same as last year as it is.

As of 2021, it was 2022 that the

Difference in value had to do with the change in the markets and the sales in the markets and what their kind of the formula comes up.

So that's that was the question I have.

Sure.

And I just so an observation about that question, because if that were true and went from twenty one to twenty two, why was it not true from twenty to twenty one?

Did the market swing that dramatically?

Between, okay, so if the market did swing that dramatically, you'll note that my assessment on, my assessment increased by $10,000 by less than 3%.

And right, or,

The fair market improvements increased 12,000, which is about 3%, and the land stayed the same.

But the assessment of 22 is based on the sales of 21.

Might I back that question up one time?

I mean, we all know we've been living through a real estate bull market in Albemarle County.

I don't have that.

I don't think we have that in front of us for this property.

But so what I think I just want for clarification, what Mr. Farrell was saying, and he's one of our board members, he was saying that when you're looking so when we're doing the 22 assessments as of January 1, 2022, so that's actually based on 21 sales, any sales sales that happen in 2021.

For 21, you're looking at 2020 sales.

For 2020, the 2020 assessment was based on 2019 sales.

So I think his clarification or distinction was, and he can correct me if I'm wrong, but between 19 and 20, which is that difference there, the 20 to 21 type of thing, the number, there wasn't as much of a

as much of an appreciation in the market as there was between 20 and 21, which comes into the 20, that makes that difference between the 21 and 20.

Well, it is the same idea, but I think what we're doing is we're basically just doing, we're applying math, right?

We're saying, okay, so in this year, the appreciation occurred at this rate and therefore your assessment

will also occur at a similar rate.

And what I'm asking is why two years ago that wasn't the case?

It seems random to me that I would be subject to a 21% increase in my assessment just because we had a robust year in 2021.

We probably had a robust year in 2020 as well, and we did also in 2019.

So I think it is material to compare those rates, 2019 and 2020, to my assessment.

And then

I'll let the assessor address that.

But my understanding is that that's what they do.

So they gave us a whole list of sales that happened in 2021 in your area.

And that's what the basis, what the difference is.

So, first of all, I want to answer your question because I now have the answer.

We changed the building multiplier from 100% or no change for the 2021 assessment to 110% for the 2022.

That's why the improvement values changed.

on all properties in the market area from the 21 assessment to the 22 assessment.

And I do not have the 2020 sales study in front of me, but based on the 2020 sales that were available for the 2021 reassessment,

That's how we set the values for 2021.

So whatever those were telling us is what we just did.

And we either didn't have enough sales that took place in this market area to really tell us which way to go or the sales that happened in 2020

told us that there was only a very slight increase in market area 114.

However, the sales that took place in 2021 told us that there was, and that's the list that we included, told us that there was a large increase for this market area.

And that's the information that we have to use in order to determine the new

Assessments.

Now, I also want to point out that the change in value has no bearing, the percent change or the dollar change has no bearing on the assessment.

It's not a reason to appeal.

It's not a reason to say that the assessment is wrong.

The assessment is based on the sales that take place in the appropriate set of data, which is the 2021 sales.

Okay and so I mean I think thank you for sharing that information and I think both sides have basically shared all the information that we have.

I rest my case

that your assessment is based on an average or on the movement of an entire marketplace.

And what I have is a property that doesn't look like 99% of what constitutes the average.

and I think that if you look under the hood, you'll find that this isn't a house that deserves a 21% assessment increase but instead it's a house that the owner better be very vigilant on and that's what I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to control my costs so that I can maintain a home in the best way that I can and it's very, it's painful

to think that a house like mine would get lumped into a set of houses that maybe the average building date was 1975 or 1990.

Thank you so much for your presentation and your argument today.

If you have anything else you'd like to add, and actually, I should also see if any of the board members have any questions for you.

I don't see any.

Of course.

And so we're going to confer and make a decision.

That decision will be mailed to you, and hopefully it should be mailed to you within the next two weeks.

Thank you.

All right, so let's open this up for discussion.

I'll just give the thought.

I mean, I didn't really wanna engage them.

The applicant paid 800,000 in sort of the depth of the recession and he wants us to believe it's worth 575 now.

We had a prior board member who used to ask, would you sell it for 575?

And there's a permit for $315,000 in that information as well, it seemed.

But I mean, I think he paid way over market back in 2011 for it, but it was also his old home, so it might be that's the reason he wanted to go back to the sentimental value.

Should he have been possibly arguing for a lower grade or something?

I mean, he didn't say that, but that's what he was saying, but he didn't say it.

It's B plus two average.

I mean, I don't know.

I'm not sure how much of an argument

I mean, obviously we didn't he didn't go through it, but I don't know if he spent $315,000, if that's accurate.

He spent $315,000 and then we have the pictures, I guess, in the in the board.

So.

$313,000.

Was that for the 2015 or 2003?

the total permit that total permit work do we know about i don't know if it's going to make too much of a difference but i'm just curious is that just for the um is that for the work that was done in 2015 or is that also for the work that was done 2003 and 2015 i'll go back to the throughout partial notes but i believe that that's over a period of time that work was was done um if you want i can give you the details

So there was a permit in 2002 for the sunroom addition and deck.

In 2003 was the kitchen remodel and second floor addition.

In 2006 was, it just says 1,000 for other mechanicals.

It's probably a small permit.

The 2015 one was 120,000.

And then the 2003 one was 160,000.

So the 100, that's why I would look at it as just the one after the 800,000, after he published the second time.

Well, the only thing I noticed is that of the actual comparable sales provided by the Assessor's Office and the applicant, there are really only two that are, I think, older homes, comparables number one and number two.

And just from a broad brush analysis, which I think is appropriate since they don't have basements or anything, comparable number one sold for $245,000.

dollars a square foot, comparable number two sold for $254 a square foot, and the subject property is assessed at $218 a square foot.

So I think given all the other information and the fact that he's failed to provide any comparable sales that are older homes while he is concerned about his home being older, I think we have to rely on those two sales.

Yeah, I agree.

This is just one of those I think where the applicant has set someone up on $100,000 and he was upset about it.

And yeah, I don't know if there's really much yet.

He doesn't, I don't think he meets the standard either.

Before we go on, just make a note that I know the family, friends with the family, coach the son and all that stuff.

Do you want to recuse yourself for that purpose?

I mean, we have enough people to...

I'd be cool to recuse.

Well, I think that's probably safer just to have you recuse on this one.

Okay.

I think just to be clear, though, the standard is if you derive any income from

from the property of the person.

That is a requirement.

I think so.

I think so.

We discussed it last year.

I don't think so.

It doesn't seem that you can.

Do we have a second?

All in favor?

All right, so we have about 20 minutes to the next hearing.

Do you want to step away for 20 minutes and come back at three o'clock?

I was having a hard time hearing.

OK, as long as I just want to make sure we're all good with it.

But that's we approve that language.

The, actually, I don't know if we want to, we should discuss this either now, we can discuss it now or discuss at the end as to availability for next week, because there's a couple recusals.

There's going to be a couple of recusals for next week.

So do you all want to discuss that now real quick?

Yeah.

I just want to make sure we have a quorum for all the, for what's coming up next week.

because I know Evan, you had one, and then Karen, you have that whole day pretty much.

I'm going to go ahead and leave.

OK, so on Tuesday, the 28th, Evan's going to be recusing the first one.

Everyone else attending, planning on attending on the 28th?

Yes, yes.

Okay.

So, all right.

We're good on 28th.

On the 30th, Karen, and there's really no reason for you to even attend, I guess.

They have sort of queues on all four of them.

And hopefully that should be a quicker one.

Yes.

All right.

Perfect.

Okay.

And Pete, on these,

Okay.

Well, they're not huge.

These are not the two inch thick ones.

They've got about,

A lot of that is like one of them that's got a long lease agreement, so that's most of the pages.

Is that okay with everyone?

And certainly if you get it and decide that you would like us to bring you a copy, print it out, we can certainly do that.

So just let us know.

And what did the mall sell?

This is the one with the land lease, but we're valuing the property.

I will definitely be pointing out that whatever they have bought or was purchased at auction was

I would say kind of the auction on behalf of a client to bid at the auction.

You were prominent in the TV coverage.

I was standing right next to the primary bidder, I guess.

I didn't realize that at the time.

All right.

So we have 15 minutes.

Yes, he is.

Yes, I think we're just waiting for Evan, but I think we can go ahead and get started.

Oh, there.

Let's go ahead and unmute yourself.

Welcome.

Thank you.

We are the Board of Equalization.

The board here is comprised of six citizens of Albemarle County who are appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

We're an independent board and we'll be listening to your tax appeal today.

So here's how the hearing will work.

You're going to be provided with 20 minutes to present your case.

The assessor will be provided with 20 minutes to present theirs and you'll be provided another five minutes for rebuttal at the end.

During the hearing, we may stop to ask you and assess your questions.

One note that per Virginia law, the standard that we go by is a presumption of correctness.

So we presume that the assessment's correct.

The burden is on you to show us otherwise.

Before we begin, let's go ahead and swear in the witnesses.

If whoever's testifying on this one, please raise your right hand.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm of the testimony, both oral and shocking query, which you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Thank you.

Who are these folks?

Mr. Lynch, Ms. Taylor, and Mr. Herndon are all from the Assessor's Office.

Myself, Mr. Farrell, Mr. Mayo, Mr.

Beard, Ms. Pape, and Mr. Wynn are the board.

Yeah, so let me begin.

As you indicated, I have 20 minutes.

I want to be thankful and begin with my process here.

Respected members of the board and the staff of the County Assessor's Office, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present my appeal.

My name is Vipul Patel.

and for 41 plus years have resided in Charlottesville of which 22 plus years in Albemarle County.

My current residence at 3250 Barracks Road is a reason for us to be here today.

Reason being that my property is appraised at a higher value than similar surrounding properties.

On January 28, 2022,

I filed for the 2022 Real Estate Assessment Review to which Mr. Peter Lynch on January 31st in writing indicated, we have reviewed the information you provided and feel that the assessed value is in line with the market.

Within the context of Mr. Lynch's review, including our phone conversations,

It was conveyed to me that my property was assigned to the comparable sales at the Foxfield area.

And the documents show that evidence.

My argument then and now is why should my property assigned to Foxfield area, which is at a far distance West from the comparables at Montview Drive neighborhood, approximately one mile East of my property.

I asked Mr. Lynch to any legal boundaries, which assigns my property to Foxfield.

And I recall he said, there's no such assignment nor boundary.

I indicated that there was such, if there was such a boundary assignment, then the Ivy Creek, which is West of my property and near Old Garth Heights would be the determinant.

Any and all properties east of Ivy Creek, which includes mine, are far from the Foxfield area.

Item number two to this position of mine, two neighborhoods, one at Colters Drive and another at Montview Drive, approximately one mile east of my property, should apply as comparable measures and not Foxfield.

For example,

A residence at 115 Montview Drive.

The land value has not changed for the past three years.

That includes years 2022, 21 and 20.

Another location, 85 Montview Drive.

The land value has not changed for the past two years, 2022 and 2021.

And in fact, decreased at year 2020.

Another conversation centered on the services that I receive at my location and my neighbors at Old Garth Heights that centered on broadband internet, which was mentioned in the response or documentations.

While the neighborhoods west of Ivy Creek

which includes Foxfield and so forth, have the luxury to broadband internet.

The immediate neighbors east of Ivy Creek at Old Garth Heights and my property rely on the outdated Century Links five to 10 Mbps service.

In essence, little or no internet service most of the times over my 12 years of residence at 3250 Barrettsford.

In fact, just recently, Quantum Broadband Internet through Almar County

was introduced for our neighborhood.

However, my property and neighbors at Old Garth Heights are realizing the major obstacles with the install and counties working on it.

In summary, and to the merits of no established legal boundary, my property shall not assign to Foxville neighborhood, which unjustly equates to higher property valuations.

I justly stand by my position

to an adjusted land value to $248,900 with the building assessed as is at $576,600.

Thank you, Mr. Patel.

Any questions for Mr. Patel at this time from the board?

To start off, I would like again, Mr. Arsali, to share the map so I can show the Foxfield neighborhood.

Yes, I was going to ask you for that.

And I am the one who signs the letters that go out of here, but I don't

but if we have, I'm sorry, I don't remember but the borders of this market area do not necessarily coordinate with what someone might think of as like Foxfield, the immediate Foxfield area.

So I'm gonna share my screen here and show this.

and just let me know when you can see this.

So this tan area all through here is the Foxfield market.

It's a rural market area just like market area 114 is just named after Foxfield because Foxfield is in that area.

And with you, I'll zoom in a little bit.

or near this market area, and actually very close to this hotel's home is, not to make sure I'm getting this right, here we have the Farmington neighborhood, which is far superior and has its own kind of issues or problems.

situation that make it superior to the surrounding properties.

There's also Montview over here in the green and that's a separate neighborhood that we assess separately.

It has some issues itself with the roads, the homes there,

I have it in our write up that I'll read this.

The Montview subdivision is certified paved roads, although very narrow roads in need of resurfacing.

High power line runs right through the entire subdivision.

I mean, there are certain things that affect that neighborhood that cause us to assess that separately.

We have not been able to group that into the wider market area.

because of the issues that were causing lower values there.

Cold Thirst is also another neighborhood that's separately assessed, but it actually has the same rates as Boxfield Market Area at $230,000 for the, I think this is right now.

I think these are overlaying each other.

No, cold thirst actually has a base rate of 295.

We weren't able to combine that in because it was superior to what we were finding in the Foxfield market area.

And so you can see that there are other neighborhoods that are separate IV farms.

All the parts of our farms are all combined together in one neighborhood.

They're at a different rate.

But we do include all of the properties in there.

There are many.

of his properties that come down in this area that are included in that.

I did have a question.

So the Montview has a lower base rate, Colehurst, that has a higher base rate, and then the other ones are

Yes, this one's in between, so I can tell you those numbers on my- Yeah, what are the base, what are the- Yeah, Montview's at $160,000 for the site, Colthurst is at $295,000, Farmington is at $800,000 for the home site, and the Foxfield market area is at $230,000.

As you can see by some of these other market areas and the kind of dark blue and the light blue, they do cover a wide area in order for us to pull in

enough sales to support values.

But they are adjusted for differences that might fall within that market area.

And when we looked into the issues of broadband, we did not find that there would be anything

that we could really measure, that we could include in the valuation that would take into account that, how much it would be different than the other properties that sold in the neighborhood, anything like that.

So we do not adjust for that issue.

This is a triangular shape.

I don't know if you can see the little blue triangle, but the parcel falls right on there.

And we do have an adjustment on it for that shape.

So otherwise, we treat this as a more or less a normal parcel in this neighborhood.

I'm going to see.

Louis, you are the one who inspected it.

I spoke with Mr. Patel on the phone where

He was satisfied with the valuation of the dwelling.

Like he said, his land valuation was his primary concern.

And on his initial review, he mentioned the lack of broadband.

That was his first and to me biggest argument at the time.

I had contacted a

A person from Virginia Tech, he is heading up a broadband study for the state and he sent me broadband maps just to show coverage in the area.

Mr. Patel's property is right on the edge of where Barracks Road becomes Garth Road.

And looking at the broadband map, I was given, it is a very small area of Mr. Patel's property and maybe just a couple more that don't have, by their map doesn't show

coverage or that much coverage at all.

But in looking at, you know, the push to get internet into the county and other satellite options and that kind of thing, we just didn't think that we could adjust for that because there are options.

When he sent off for the board review, he did mention Montview.

All of his comps are in the Montview subdivision and Montview is a

neighborhood with a lot of older houses.

They're all in the 50s or 60s there.

It's kind of a, I don't want to say, it's a neighborhood that's in transition.

A lot of the houses are being updated now.

So we didn't really find anything wrong with this property.

It is a triangular lot.

We do adjust for a couple of things that we would look at as being negative, like the triangular lot.

Thank you.

Good question.

I thought Mr. Patel said he was okay with the building at 576-600.

That's added into the difference?

Can we go back to that Colthurst neighborhood?

$295,000 for the two-acre home site.

One other question.

Yes.

We have $253,000 on the home site.

That includes a location adjustment that we use in this area.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Actually, I'll make a correction, which I indicated.

And I spoke to Mr. Lynch, and I make that correction.

It may have been Mr. Hernand.

So that was pointed out.

So that is established now.

And that is correct in what Mr. Hernand indicated.

I would like to add,

I think Mr. Lynch indicated that Montview has Dominion Towers, I believe you said that, I couldn't pick you up, but right at the edge of my property, at the top corner, at the corner of the property, Dominion has their entire network, or what do you call it, transformer station.

and that is there, it's visible from my property.

So that was not mentioned in any of my comments or rebuttals prior to this meeting.

The other item I wanted to add, Colters Farm is a location where I also own a residential parcel.

And I can unequivocally say that that is judged a bit different because for one there's, I believe,

Utilities, Soar and Water are served there.

And I believe also Fireline is served there because I have a hydrant right in front of my residential property.

So that's why they may be valued at much higher pace.

They do have high-speed internet and have had it for a long time.

In fact, at one time I had envisioned building there.

And then after I moved in, I found out about internet.

But nonetheless, that's a minor issue.

To Mr. Herndon's point, I am at the edge of that broadband issue concern or having broadband.

The county, Mr. Jason Infuentes, I may have said his name incorrectly, with the broadband authority at the county level.

are working on getting broadband internet to my residents and to the residents on Old Garth Heights, which I believe are three or four residents there.

We uniquely feel, all of us here, myself and Old Garth, that we are not served, we should not be tagged to Fox Field.

The services are different there.

And again, Colthurst is a different market as well.

And we feel we're comparable to Montview.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions for anyone at this point?

I had one question for the assessor.

Mr. Patel brought up the substation behind.

There have not.

So as you can see, it is right here next to behind his property.

They might have an adjustment.

We have some lines actually on the bottom of there.

We have another adjustment on that one.

It has this other adjustment, which I believe is for that station.

Okay.

I can say having been there, the day that I was there, I didn't notice the power station through the trees and I didn't hear any kind of an audible noise or hum or anything like that.

May I add?

Well, I do not look for but there's an Old Garth Heights does carry a lot of vehicular traffic as well.

Dominion, if there's any power related issues, there's tremendous vehicle traffic.

I cannot directly attest for it, but I do pick up the noise.

But my neighbors behind me could tell you that.

They're not here with us.

I can see.

Yeah, I mean, it depends on the foliage, right?

And what height you're standing at for my property, although it's pretty level.

But you can hear the humming at times.

So the request was essentially, you know, this is just trying to equate fairness.

I believe the land value is at 266,300.

I valued it on keeping it essentially, I believe the same, I don't have previous years, but at 248,900.

It's roughly 18,000, I believe.

The prior years, you're looking at prior years assessments.

Okay.

Okay.

Anyone else have any questions?

All right, well, we thank you for your time today.

We're going to go ahead and confer, and your decision, we'll mail your decision to you.

All right, I appreciate it.

OK, thank you so much.

So I think we're arguing about $150 a year here.

yeah the first one was pretty I mean we're not the numbers aren't too big but yeah to me that's like within the margin of error and in terms of the the site topography adjustments that were applied you know those were rounded off figures I mean I suppose it it could be reasonable to value it at 248 I don't know if he carried his burden to do that

If you don't mind, I would recommend that we put a 10% adjustment on the home site for a power line.

Yeah, that's, I think that's fair.

There should be, as David said, I mean, there should be some adjustment, there needs to be some adjustment there.

Just that earlier, but I couldn't get my system to work.

It started locking up.

So do we have a motion?

I think we need to calculate the full number as well.

Do you get that, David?

Yep.

Do we have a motion?

Waki?

I'll second.

Oh, we haven't made a motion.

No, I was just agreeing to the numbers.

Oh, OK. You want to make the motion, Waki, to?

The number will be 241 on the land and 576, 600 on the building, including the extra features.

That is correct.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

All in favor?

Yes.

Aye.

It'll be a happy resident.

I'm sorry we missed that on the review.

Well, Bob, we caught it now.

Okay, so we have 30 minutes now until the next hearing.

I'm assuming that next topic is not online yet, that they could start early.

Not yet.

It's four o'clock.

Do we know if the applicant's here?

Who just checked in?

Is that Dana Grim?

That is Dana.

Dana, could you turn your video on?

Hello?

Hello, Mr. Shea.

This is Anthony Arsali.

This is the Board of Equalization.

Oh, yes, I can.

Thank you.

Hello.

So let me go ahead and give a little welcome and message.

So good afternoon.

We're the Board of Equalization.

This board is comprised of six citizens of Albemarle County who are appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

We're an independent board and we'll be listening to the presentation today and making a decision as to your tax appeal.

How the hearing will work is this.

You're gonna have 20 minutes for your presentation.

The assessor will have 20 minutes for theirs and then you will have a five minute rebuttal.

In the middle of all that, the board may have questions for you or the assessor.

One note I just wanna make in terms of Virginia law,

There is a presumption of correctness, so that means the presumption is that the assessor's assessment is correct and the burden is on you to prove otherwise.

So before we begin, I'm going to swear in the witnesses.

Mr. Chay, I understand that we can't see you.

So if you can, just raise your right hand and then verbally acknowledge after I have this question.

Do you solemnly swear?

I think Ms. Grimm, are you going to be testifying as well?

If you can, please raise your right hand.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony, both oral and documentary, which you're about to give, will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Thank you.

Mr. Shea, any questions?

So in terms of on the board, there's myself, Anthony Arsali, David Ferrall, Bob Beard, Karen Pape, Waki Wynn, and Evan Mayo.

We're the six members of the Board of Equalization.

Okay, great.

Well, I appreciate everybody's time today.

I know it's a little rougher with COVID and I was having trouble with Zoom yesterday.

Billy was so gracious in trying to help me, but my computer was just not cooperating.

So thank you for the conference call ability that I've got anyway.

I've got 20 minutes, I think, as you mentioned, and I would basically like to accomplish three things in the 20 minutes that I have.

And the first thing is to kind of go over the condition of my house, the property, the age, etc., etc., which Dana will be able to help with because she has actually been to the house.

and then the second goal that I have is to determine the actual square footage and size of the house.

I think there's been some different figures thrown out and I would just like to nail that down with everybody today.

And then the last thing is I have five comps from houses that have sold in the area and I've tried to pick them

that would be similar to my house out in the country with acreage, private lanes, well water and septic.

So, and as close to my house as I possibly can.

So I have five comps that I'll go through and hopefully I'll be able to accomplish that in my 20 minutes.

Okay, so the first thing is, I'm sure you've got the information on my house, but just to kind of recap,

It was built in 1999.

We have six acres of property.

We're located on 20 North, close to Proffit Road.

And Dana has been out a couple of times, once two or three years ago, and then once in May, I believe it was.

And I guess I'll turn it over just for the sake of transparency, honesty,

I'll turn it over to Dana so she can assess the house a little bit more and give a little bit more detail of the update and the condition of my 23 year old house.

Mr. Shea, if you don't mind, if you can continue your presentation and then when we kind of, because that's usually our kind of

That's our procedure.

We have you do your presentation.

Ms. Grimm will ask questions to her in terms of condition.

If you want to leave it to her at the time when she does the 20 minutes, then you're going to have your five minutes of rebuttal.

OK. OK, that's fine.

All right, well, the second thing is the size of my house.

And I have three documents.

three independent documents in front of me.

Unfortunately, we're not together so you can't see them.

But Peter, I would be glad to bring them in, make copies for you so you would have them as well.

And the first one, the first document is the plans of our house.

And we got the plans through Southern Living Magazine.

So they sent us the plans for the house.

We took them to our builder.

he made the drawings of them and I have the drawings in front of me that basically come out to 4,280 square feet from our builder.

And the second document that I have is we refinanced the house in 2001.

and it was performed by a gentleman by the name of Sean B. McCoy, B-R-A-C-E-T-C-C-I, he was the appraiser that came out and it was done in 2001 and his appraisal came out with 4296 square feet and I've got the detail of all of that.

Peter, as I said, I'd be glad to share that with you

The third document that I have is another appraisal.

And this was for a refinance in 2012.

And this was done by a Marty Walters.

And the square footage that he came out with was 4278 square feet.

So I have three independent

And we haven't added any space to the house.

We haven't done any construction to the house except change a storage room from furniture to grandkids toys that Dana can see so that Dana can speak to.

I think Dana's muted at the moment, but again, Mr. Shay, if you don't mind, we'll go back.

I understand that that's your position.

We may go back and forth once it gets, but I just wanna, at this point, just kind of, I understand that's gonna be discrepancies, but we'll hear from Dana once they get to that, to their time.

But your position that's around, your square footage is approximately 4280.

Correct.

OK. That is correct.

And I think that's very important because as you look at market conditions and you look to buy a house, the first thing you ask is how big is it, how many square feet does it have, how many bedrooms, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

So on the comps that I have, everything is done by square footage as well.

So that's why it ties to that.

And I feel it's so important to nail that down.

And I guess the first part of my question relative to the condition of the house is the appraised value of my house this year increased by 15%.

And from the research I've done, the majority, the average, whatever, increase in the assessed value was

7.5%.

So that's why I'm trying to nail down the condition of the house as well.

Why is my property double the assessed percentage?

So those are two very important questions.

And if you want to put those off and talk about them later, that's fine.

But from a transparency and honesty, I do want those answered.

Of course.

Okay, so I guess we're to the last part of my presentation, which would be the comps that I have.

And the first comp that I have is my neighbor's house that's sold.

And we have about 200 feet of property that we share.

So it's a very close neighbor of mine.

And that address is 1248 Breezemont.

It's right behind my home.

And it sits on a magnificent knoll that has 365-day views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was built in 1997.

My home was built in 1999, so it has very similar building materials.

It's on a private road, as my house is,

It has well, and it also has septic tank, which my house does.

And it's a little bit bigger than my house.

It's eight bedrooms, seven baths, 6,540 square feet, has 21 acres, where I only have seven acres.

And it sold for $128 a square foot.

OK?

The second property that I have is actually one that Dana gave me.

It's 2156 Polo Grounds.

And it's about 2.1 miles from my house.

And once again, it has five bedrooms, four baths, very similar to my house, custom built, 4.7 acres, very similar.

$47.96 square feet.

It is a little bit bigger, but very similar.

And it sold for $164 a square foot.

The third property I have is 1706 Monet Hills.

This property is 2.6 miles from my house.

It has five bedrooms, five baths, 5,700 square feet, a little bit bigger.

Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain views.

It was built in 2006, so it is seven years newer than my house.

And it sold for $134 a square foot.

Then I have, the fourth house that I have is 1760 Lambs Road, which is about 4.9 miles from my house.

It has 2.4 acres.

4,670 square feet, four bedrooms, four baths, about exactly the same size.

It is all brick construction.

It's a little bit older than my house.

But once again, it has beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, as you can see from the picture if you're pulling it up.

And it sold, I think as I mentioned, for $123 a square foot.

The fifth and last house that I have is a comp.

is a very interesting home in Keswick.

And that is about 5.7 miles from my home.

It's 875 Black Cat Road.

It has four bedrooms, four baths, 4654 square feet.

It's on two acres, all brick construction, beautiful curb appeal.

Built in 2005, so it is newer than my home.

If you're looking on Zillow, you can see the many upgrades it has with the all brick construction, Brazilian cherry hardwoods, density crown molding, multiple fireplaces.

And it absolutely looks in excellent condition.

And it sold for $147 a square foot.

Those are the homes that I've got all within five miles of my home.

None of them in any neighborhoods.

All of them with some type of acreage and very close to the square footage that I have.

So as I look at my house and the appraised value that you've assessed, it's $758,900.

and if I were to apply the 4275 square footage, 4280, it's gonna be close here, I would come out to $178 a square foot which is higher than any of the five comps that I have, especially my neighbor's house where we abut property.

So if I average

Those five houses on a square footage basis, I come out to $139 a square foot.

And once again, you've got my house valued at $178 a square foot.

So what are we talking about?

20% higher than the average of those five comps that I had?

And if you throw out and you say, okay,

The low one really doesn't look good, and the high one is out in Keswick.

That's the premier area probably of Charlottesville, or certainly one of them, especially since the Keswick Hotel is reopened.

If you throw out the high and the low, and I went with the three medium properties, I would come out with $136 a square foot.

So once again, very much below

the price that you've assessed my property at $178 a square foot.

And if you look at just Black Cat Road, the one in Keswick, the most expensive, if I was to apply the square footage that I have, the 4275, I would come out with $628,000.

Now that's far below the 758 that you have assessed my property at.

So I'm trying to understand the square footage of my house, the condition of my 23-year-old house, and the comps in my area, why I am 20% higher

25%, 30% on certain homes than what my assessed value is.

So those are my questions.

What square footage do you have?

What condition of the house do you have?

And why are you assessing my house 20% higher than the comps in my area that are similar with private roads, wells, a little bit of acreage,

All right, well, thank you.

Anybody have any questions for Mr. Shea at this time?

Mr. Shea,

It's probably not 20% more just because the county is using a higher square footage number.

So I'm also curious why the county is using a square footage number and I'm sure that's higher than what you have.

I'm sure they're going to address that.

But my question to you and the other question I have is why, as you said, your assessment is up 15% this year.

If you look back at assessments, you were assessed in the

and 710 and 17, 820 and 18, 836, 781.

We went from 781 in 2020 to 663 in 2021 and then back up to 758 in 2022.

So I'm interested to hear what the county has to say about that, why it was such a drop last year and why it's higher this year.

But I am curious why you're asking for a value this year of $544,000 on your house when it's been fairly regularly assessed that mid-sevenths to $800,000 or higher over the past five years.

Well, there is.

In 2020, that was the year that I went through the appeal process for the first time.

And once again, my neighbor's house sold that was right behind me, not the one that sold this year, but it was right behind me and it sold for far below my home.

And it's almost, once again, it was almost a replica of my house.

size wise, time of construction, building materials, private road, no state maintenance, that type thing.

So that's why you see it lowered.

It was over assessed at that time and the city lowered it because I appealed it and I showed them what houses were selling for in my area at that time.

Now, I'm not asking for 420, 450.

Okay, that's not what I'm asking for.

Okay, your application says 544.

I'm saying above that amount as I started really doing some research, yes.

I'm saying it's between probably 575 and 628.

Okay.

Thanks.

I do recall that now where you had a sale that was after the date we couldn't use it but I'm assuming that they used it for the 2021 assessments

Correct.

I do recall that.

I have just one question for you that you may be able to answer.

In terms of the sale on Breezemont, since this is your next door neighbor, it doesn't appear that it was on the market.

Right.

Zillow pulls it off the public records, but I don't see where it was actually listed on the market.

So I'm just thinking, you may not know this.

I'm just wondering, because you're the neighbor, if you know what the circumstances of that sale were.

Like if it was, they were related somehow, was there a for sale sign out there?

I do know it.

It was a lady that had gone through a divorce

and her husband was no longer living there.

Now, this was three, four years ago and it was just her and her daughter and maybe her parents, but it was just way too big for her to keep up.

21 acres, 6,500 square feet and she had been trying to sell it for two or three years and has had various relators at the time and she could never get the value she wanted

But when she sold it for $850, she got the value that she wanted in the market that she wanted a few months ago.

So I'm not sure I never did see the for sale sign.

I don't know if she was working with a realtor that just didn't put a for sale sign up or what.

Any, David?

Just for context, I've never seen this.

I saw an old list thing when I...

Okay, hang on, I take that back.

If you go to Zillow, it's in there.

It just sold for 835,000 May 13th of 21.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other questions for Mr.

Shave this time?

Before we get to Dana, I want to address a few issues.

We have a sketch that Dana did when she did the full inspection a couple of years ago for the BLE appeal.