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Assessments 'not perfect,' county says

Who gets a refund unclear

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After discovering mistakes in last year's countywide property reappraisal, assessors are reviewing the values on hundreds of lots and houses in southern Beaufort County, and usually reducing them. The reductions will mean significantly lower tax bills this year for owners of the properties.

Parts of Sea Pines, as well as North Forest Beach, Long Cove, Wexford, Palmetto Dunes and Belfair will be reviewed, said Robert Reames, deputy assessor.

"We're trying to correct some of these errors we have," Reames said. "It's not going to be perfect."

So far, only oceanfront property in Sea Pines has been reviewed. Values on many lots there -- almost all of which were $4 million -- have been lowered by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The assessment on a beachfront lot at the end of Green Heron Road in Sea Pines, for example, has been reduced by $600,000, meaning a tax cut of about $3,900. An $800,000 reduction on a beachfront lot on Piping Plover Road, also in Sea Pines, will translate to a tax bill that's $5,200 less than last year's.

Some property owners -- those who challenged last year's high assessments and won -- not only will pay lower taxes this year, but also will get refunds for overpayments they made last year.

But property owners who didn't challenge last year's assessments may not get refunds.

"They certainly are welcome to apply," Reames said, "but the statute says that if you didn't appeal, you're not entitled to a refund."

County administrator Gary Kubic, however, said the issue was being researched. State law doesn't mandate refunds. Indeed, Kubic said, there's disagreement among county assessors about whether it's appropriate even to go back and change assessments for the future, let alone issue refunds based on revised values.

"There seems to be a debate, or at least an inconsistent application, county by county on that issue," Kubic said.

County Council Chairman Weston Newton said he was asking Kubic and Reames to present the information to the council's Finance Committee.

"It (raises) questions in my mind about how these things are being done, and I want to have an understanding of it and have council be aware of it," Newton said.

Reames said his review was aimed at making sure assessments reflect fair market values as of Dec. 31, 2002 -- the same thing last year's reassessment was supposed to do.

When he finds an error on one assessment, he said, he looks at neighboring properties to see whether their assessments should come down, too. That's what he's doing in Sea Pines, where last year's $4 million assessments on beachfront lots are dropping one after another.

"Equity is part of the mass appraisal process," Reames said. "It would be improper to change one or two and leave the others."

Yet that's exactly what's happened in some cases. For example, lots on one street in Belfair -- all approximately the same size and with the same view of a golf course -- were valued at $236,000. One owner challenged his assessment. The assessor's office lowered it to $165,000, a 30 percent cut. But assessments weren't lowered on any of the other lots.

Reames said he has instructed his staff to do as he does: After finding a mistake on one property, check neighboring properties to see whether their assessments also are out of line and, if necessary, make corrections.

"That's what I'd always told them, and hopefully they'd do it the same way," said Reames, who was interim chief assessor from January until last week, when a new assessor was hired.

But his directions weren't always followed, he said.

"Not everybody interprets things (the same)," Reames said. "... It's a gray area there. You've got to be very careful there with changing values like that."

One real estate expert said it was unfair to deny lower values to owners after mistakes are found just because they didn't appeal.

"It's just wrong," said Steve Linsday, a private appraiser on Hilton Head with 27 years of experience. "Their situation is the very same as their next-door neighbor who appealed, but just because they didn't appeal, they don't get the lower assessment."