Verona posted a notice to the town website today that it has kicked off a town-wide revaluation of all properties here. The work is being conducted by Professional Property Appraisers of Delran, N.J., and the results of the revaluation will be implemented for the 2019 tax year. The reval was ordered by the Essex County Board of Taxation, not Verona, in case you are wondering.
To conduct the revaluation, a PPA representative will make an inspection of your property and measure all buildings on it and improvements to it. If you’re not home when PPA arrives, they will do an exterior inspection and leave a postcard with a phone number for you to call to set up an appointment for an interior inspection. If you have tenants or caregivers on your property, you should let them know what’s going on.
“The people making this inspection are not responsible for developing the market value estimates,” PPA says in its notice. “Their job is not to make an instant judgment as to valuation, but rather to collect information to be used in the valuation process. Each representative will be registered with the Verona Police Department and will be wearing a photo identification badge.” (Photos of all have been posted here.)
When PPA finishes its work, you’ll get a notice, by mail, of your property’s new assessed value. Remember that the appraised value of your property is not the market value–what an interested buyer would pay. You will also get a chance to discuss the new value with a PPA representative.
The good news, if there ever is any good news about taxes, is that the new town-wide revaluation should not be as jarring as the last one, which was done in 2009. At that time, Verona had not had a town-wide revaluation in nearly three decades and the valuation changes then were dramatic, with some properties seeing a 50% hike in taxes. The 2009 reval even led to the rise of a home-grown Tea Party of sorts. Since that last town-wide reval there have been rolling revaluations around town every year, which have made adjustments as our real estate market recovered from the recession. But Verona taxpayers may still feel a property tax pinch because the tax plan pushed through by Republicans in Washington limits state and local tax deductions to $10,000.
If you need any information about the revaluation program before the PPA people show up, you can contact the company at 1-866-957-1388.
