Waukesha Property Owners Will Receive New Assessments This Week

Assessment notices will be going out this week to inform owners what their  property value is worth. The notices are being mailed out on Friday.

Assessments, property information and sales information is available at the assessor's office and online. The assessment roll also is available online, at the assessor's office and at the Waukesha Public Library.

Generally, property assessments are completed every four years. The city last assessed the property in 2009 and is doing it in 2011 because of the number of requests to lower the property values given the volatile market.

As property values have been declining in recent years, people have been receiving appraisals for lower interest rates, said City Assessor Paul Klauck. When they see that new appraisal, they want their assessment changed.

“They get an appraisal and they see that the appraised value is less than our assessment,” Klauck said

The city could have acted on the individual requests from property owners to reduce the values but it wouldn’t be a uniform assessment compared to other city properties, said City Assessor Paul Klauck. Just changing one property's assessment would not be fair for the surrounding properties.

“It is not going to be fair, and it is not going to be equitable,” said Klauck about changing individual properties as requests come into the city assessor’s office. Instead, the city chose to re-assess all properties this year.

The city assessor’s office uses a statistical computer software to determine the property values to ensure the property assessments are consistent with what other properties. However, there are fewer home sales in recent years and some of those are homes that are foreclosed or sold in a short sale, which means the property sells for much less than it is worth, Klauck said.

While Waukesha has some foreclosures, the majority of the home sales are between private people, he said.

“It is not as bad as you might find in California, Arizona or Florida where foreclosures are the majority of the sales,” Klauck said.

If there are questions about assessments or the property values, phone calls can be made to the assessor’s office at 262-524-3510. Staff will be available for face-to-face contact by appointment between 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The review time will be from April 15 to May 13. People who are considering challenging their assessments are “strongly recommended” to meet with the assessor’s office for a review during that time period, according to a city document.

“They have got a three-week period to talk to us and question the values,” Klauck said. “That period is a more informal process.”

Appeals to the Board of Review need to be filed at least 48 hours before the first scheduled meeting, which is May 23. A signed, written objection form must be filed with the city clerk’s office.

Looking ahead to the city’s 2012 budget, the re-assessed properties may mean the tax rate could go up if property values have declined. Under Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 budget proposal, though, communities can’t raise the total amount of taxes collected, which is known as the tax levy, unless there is new development that supports the tax increase.

The assessor's office does not levy taxes and questions about taxes should be directed to the local taxing authorities, according to a city document.

For more information on the appeal process, there is information on the state's website.