Township Council To Host 'Open House' With Tax Assessor Tonight
Informal meeting gets underway at 6 p.m. at Town Hall
It's been a year and a half since the controversial 2010 revaluation hit the books.
And tonight, township Tax Assessor Eric L. Zanetti will be on hand at Town Hall at 6 p.m. to discuss his role and property assessments in general. It will be the first public appearance he has made since the new assessments came out.
Some residents - especially members of the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Association- have been clamoring for Zanetti to attend a council since the new assessments came out in October of 2010.
Although the Township Council discussed inviting Zanetti to a council meeting recently, officials decided instead to make it a separate event, Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said.
"We thought it would be better to have it on a separate night," Amato said.
The township's first revaluation since 1991 didn't sit well with some residents, especially those with oceanfront and waterfront homes. The Berkeley Township Taxpayers Association was born after the new assessments came out.
Residents tonight can ask Zanetti questions during the informational session, the mayor said.
They can also meet privately with Zanetti in the council caucus room to discuss their individual assessments after the session, Amato said.
Properties in Berkeley were assessed at between 40 to 50 percent of true market value before the revaluation, which was done by Certified Valuations Inc. After the revaluation, most were close to 100 percent of true market value
Overall, 84 percent of the assessments were accurate, said Richard J. Carabelli, president of Martin Appraisal Associates, the firm the township hired to review the revaluation results.
The remaining 16 percent had data collection errors, Carabelli said during a special meeting held last year.
Amenities like half baths, decks, pools, fireplaces and extra bedrooms may not have been included in the faulty assessments, Carabelli said.
"There was a litany of items," he said then. "If they (Certified) had one wrong, we failed them. It was a simple pass/fail."
But some of the problems with the assessments were not Certified's fault, Carabelli said.
"There were a number of homes they were not given access to, so that had to estimated," he said
Carabelli recommended that Zanetti take another look at two sections of the township - some oceanfront portions in South Seaside Park and some models in the senior villages - and re-examine the assessments.
Carabelli also recommended that Zanetti develop a "compliance plan" which would update assessments in the future.
Are you happy with your current property assessment? Take our poll below!
Chief Wahoo
12:02 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
Did everyone with property on the water APPEAL their tax assesments this year !!!!!!
Judy Sobko
1:22 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
I appealed my waterfront home's new assessment and it was dropped by $22,000.00. I brought tons of samples and "comparables" with me and an aerial view photograph of my neighborhood, depicting all of our homes and properties as "rectangles and pie pieces." Even though some of the properties were on open water, some had gigantic bulkheads and some were easily 3 times bigger than my small lot, our assessments only varied by $40,000. Go to Google Earth to visually compare all of the properties in your neighborhood. I think you will be amazed. Another issue is not assessing the Holiday City properties accordingly. If the elderly are given preferential treatment, that constitutes age discrimination. That's a problem for all of us, because while the Holiday City crowd is generally on a tight fixed income, so are very many of us who are too young to live there. We are expected to pick up the slack when we are also on fixed incomes. That is absolute discrimination. If we all have to face a tax revaluation, then we ALL have to face a tax revaluation. Perhaps if the HC homeowners had to face what we're facing, there would be an even greater uproar and these bogus revaluations would be overturned. I understand that Berkeley Twp. is currently suing Certified over this debacle. When the township wins, how will the overburdened taxpayers be reimbursed?
Judy Sobko
1:31 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
Also, the Tax Assessors office and the Judge at my hearing refused to accept foreclosures, short sales & sheriff's sales as comparable properties. The judge claimed that those sales "did not reflect the actual market." I believe that judge is unaware of what really has occurred in recent real estate market. Foreclosures, short sales, etc... ARE today's market and should absolutely be used when comparing prices. Another property was thrown out as an "unacceptable comparable" because it had been hastily sold after a messy divorce. Seriously! The Judge actually said that with a straight face. So, three properties in my neighborhood could sell for 1/2 their value, it would ABSOLUTELY AFFECT THE ASKING PRICE FOR ANY OTHER HOME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, yet the judge saw fit to throw all the lower prices out and assess us at a sky-high rate that no one in this market would be prepared to pay. I honestly don't understand how they are allowed to get away with such random and arbitrary decisions.
Chief Wahoo
1:42 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
so only perfect sales , which are few and far between , count and the fraudclosures that cause ALL houses values to drop, dont count
of course the fix is in......how do you think the judges get paid their salaries , health benefits and pensions
Chief Wahoo
1:39 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
After tonight, Send Zanetti on the unemployment line where he can hang out with his buddy Varano.....i hope lots of people show up and rip this public employee lowlife.....he has allowed peoples hard earned money to be taken.....THIS IS THEFT !
john
2:21 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
i was over assesed by about 16 % by zanetti s crew after i built an addition, after failing 3 appeal process s i gave up, the re evaluation dropped my taxes by 15 1/2 percent.
i got screwed for 5 years....was paying more taxes on my pinelands forest house than some on their renovated million dollar waterfront homes...
sorry, i m not feeling sorry for those at waterfront property s.. most were 2nd homes that helped cause the whole current economic situation imo.....
Doris Cauda
5:03 pm on Friday, May 11, 2012
I strongly reject Judy Sobko's comments that seniors get preferential treatment. I live in a 1100 square foot cubicle with 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. My house is assessed for $113,700. Fat chance I have of selling it for that amount. Ms.Sobko's comments also reflect her ignorance of real estate. Does she have a real estate license? Is she a certified appraiser? Then how can she make such statements? She didn't like what the judge said? Too bad. I will never be able to afford a home on the water. She's living in a prime area. These people will never be satisfied until their taxes go back to what they were paying 20 years ago. Not gonna happen so get used to it.
Chief Wahoo
6:46 pm on Friday, May 11, 2012
if everyone is made to become house rich, we are all going down ......better wake up to this QUICKLY !
Judy Sobko
7:35 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
You're entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to post these facts. We are ALL assessed WAY over the actual value of our homes. That is the point. Whether you are a 20 or 40 or 80-year-old should not come into play. That is discrimination. No, I am not an assessor, but I received all of my info from 2 Bayville realtors and 1 assessor, and it is all true. Period. I was at the hearings, you clearly were not. That is why I had my assessment value dropped- because my facts were correct. -JS
John DiStefano
7:03 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
Very misleading article. Many water front homes were way under assessed for years. Paying taxes , on a 200k assessment when they were selling for 500k. What the article does not state is that newer homes in the community, of which there are thousands were selling for 400k or more, were paying taxes on a 400k assessment. Was it fair that these homeowners were paying more than their fair share of the tax burden for YEARS?
Judy Sobko
8:03 am on Monday, May 14, 2012
No, there is nothing fair about any of this.
rob
12:34 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
R.Kaiser
I went to the tax office for over ten years complaining that I was over taxed. They
were nasty with a huge attitude saying what do you expect ,you live on the water.
I was not comparing my house to holiday city or any other area except houses
in my area,house's that were 2000sqft were paying lower taxes then my 1400sqft.
So after the revaluation guess what, my Taxes are lower then these larger homes,
but still higher.I over payed a least $10,000 over those years. Now you know why
we worked so hard to get varano out. This tax guy needs to go .Please Mayor Amato can't you do something.