2021 Revaluation

Phase 1 of Revaluation

Starting in May, Data Verification forms (known as Data Mailers) will be mailed to all 20,800 residential properties.  Data Mailers allow property owners to be involved and to verify the information the Town has on record from previous onsite visits. The Assessor’s Office is asking that everyone return these data mailers to the Assessor’s Office in the self-addressed stamped envelope that has been included so that this can be easily done.

The Assessor’s Office and Vision personnel will then review and make any corrections if necessary.

The Town of West Hartford continues to actively monitor the evolving health situation regarding COVID-19 (coronavirus) and is deeply committed to the continued health and safety of our residents. Based on the recommended social distancing protocols established by the Center for Disease Control, the Town will be delaying interior inspections until it is deemed safe again to resume these procedures. This approach accomplishes the goal of ensuring the utmost safety of our residents and data collectors by aligning with the social distancing protocols that are recommended at a federal and state level.

In order to ensure continued accuracy in data, data collectors will go to each property and physically inspect the exterior only, to verify the measurements of each building as needed.  The data collector will note a building’s size, condition, and quality of construction, improvements, topography, utilities, and numerous other characteristics. Data collectors will not enter any structure. All data collectors will be wearing reflective clothing, have an “Assessor’s Office” sign posted in the vehicle window and their cars will be registered with the Police Department as well as the Assessor’s Office in Town Hall.

The Town will continue to delay all interior inspections, until the Department of Public Health and local officials have advised that special precautions to limit the exposure of the novel coronavirus are no longer necessary.

Vision Government Solutions will send a letter to the property owner of properties having received an exterior inspection during this period requesting that the property owner call to arrange for an interior inspection at a future date.

After the initial Data Collection phase, market analysis and valuation will begin, followed by field review of properties to check and re-check values to ensure uniformity and accuracy of information. This will be followed by a Notice of New Values mailed to each property owner and an Informal Hearings phase, which enables anyone with questions concerning the revaluation process an opportunity to meet with a member of the Assessor’s staff to discuss their property value.

If you have any questions about the revaluation process or need additional information, please contact the Assessor’s Office at 860-561-7414 or Revaluation@westhartfordct.gov

The valuation phase includes:

• The validation and analysis of property sales
• The valuation of each property by way of the sales or market comparison approach
• Developing valuation tables for models that will be applied by the computer assisted mass appraisal system (CAMA system)
•  Neighborhood-delineation
• Notice Phase
• Informal Conferences

There are three approaches to value when valuing real property: cost, income, and sales or market comparison.  The sales or market comparison approach is the most applicable for residential properties.

The sales or market comparison approach compares the subject property to similar properties that sold and are in the CAMA sales analysis file representing arms-length transactions of sales within a timeframe of one to three years of revaluation.  The values of the sale properties are adjusted to reflect the inferior or superior difference in their features and characteristics to the subject property.  The CAMA system performs this by statistical analysis.

The necessity of neighborhood-delineation is to form a basis for modeling.  For example, a waterfront community located within a municipality with homes on the water would have a market profile similar to each other but different from the other homes in that area that are not on the water.   

A model is a representation that explains the relationship between value as an estimated sale price and variables representing market factors, such as the number of bathrooms, bedrooms, etc.  CAMA uses a property’s data description to determine what a property would probably sale for with certain characteristics in a particular geographic area.

Upon completion the revaluation project, assessment notices are prepared, and mailed to each property owner with updated value information.  The notice contains the prior market value and assessment along with the updated market value and assessment.  The assessment notice will also include how to meet with the Assessors or Revaluation Company to discuss your updated value.

The informal conferences provide the property owner with an opportunity to obtain an explanation as to how their property was valued and to challenge the valuation if they feel it is inaccurate.  The conferences provide another level of quality control to the revaluation process.  If the municipality has incorrect data about a property characteristic such as an additional bathroom, the final value would not be as accurate as it could be with the correct data.  The informal conferences may result in valuation changes reflecting information discovered by way of the informal conferences. 

The conferences are not a forum to discuss taxation; it is not a basis for a reduction of an assessment and is never helpful to the appeal process.