Lakewood Township Property Tax Reevaluation Process

over the past few months every single homeowner in Lakewood or property owner in Lakewood has received a letter from the Lakewood Township Tax Assessor's Office saying that their house will be reevaluated because the township is undergoing a state ordered reevaluation for their entire town many concerned residents of Lakewood have reached out to the township to find out exactly what this means to them and and for their property values and ultimately for the taxes that they'll be paying to Lakewood Township uh it's a very complicated process and in order to explain it best I've asked that our tax assessor Ed Seager and Jason con of appraisal Systems Incorporated to do a little presentation to try to clarify the whole process so that everybody will hopefully have a little better of an understanding once they're done my name is Ed Seager I'm the tax assessor for the township of Lakewood sitting to my left is Jason Cohen who's the project manager from appraisal Systems Inc the company that has been contracted to assist the Township in this reevaluation process a lot of people get very worried when they hear the term reevaluation that my assessment's going up and therefore my taxes are going up the first thing we want to state is not everybody's taxes will be going up even if your assessment goes up it's possible that your taxes do go down generally when a revaluation is done the simple math says a third of people are going to go up in taxes a third will stay about the same and 1/3 will go down will those numbers hold exactly true we don't know and that won't be known until the end of the project which will end in probably December of this year I'll have Jason uh go over the basic reasons of why we've been ordered to do a revaluation and Jason can take that thanks Ed as Ed said my name is Jason Cohen I'm the project manager for appraisal systems and I'm the liaison with Ed's office for this project uh our company has been hired by the town to go through this reval this revaluation um as had said it was ordered by the Ocean County Board of Taxation because the Assessments in town are no longer reflective of the market value of what properties are selling for so the state and the county has ordered the town to go through this process so that we can bring values assessments back to their market value what things are selling for currently so the first step in that process is to do uh inspections at all properties in town those inspections have started uh started about two weeks ago and that process is going to last for a number of months probably until October October and November of this year you'll see uh inspectors from our companies uh or from our company out on the street um those inspectors are uh employees of appraisal systems they are fully vetted and um reviewed by the township uh they're ided by the township the township knows who they are and where they're working if at any time uh you're concerned about who comes to your property you should absolutely check their ID and make sure that they're uh verified and say say who they say they are you can call the town and make sure that uh their ID matches with the ID that's on file um but those inspections are are started already and they'll be lasting throughout the summer and into the early fall okay with the inspections the process of the inspection is that every property be fully inspected interior and exterior we ask for the Public's cooperation in in letting the inspectors in your home I understand a lot of people don't want to do that for various reasons a lot of times people con concerned that if they have maybe done some work without the proper permits that we're going to turn them in the inspectors that are out there for the most part have a blank slate they do not know what was on your property before they got there so they don't know if you finished your basement or finished your attic or done an addition or done a deck they won't know that so we're not turning anybody over to code enforcement or Zoning for any kind of possible violations in that regards they're just there to record what is in the house the number of bathrooms number of bedrooms the quality of the house is there basement you do not have to let the inspectors in your home however if you don't the law actually states that it's to be estimated to the best highest possible use and in Lakewood many times that means that you'll be credited with a finished basement that has an apartment in it and if you don't have a finished basement with an apartment you want them to be able to sure that they verify that and and see that that's in there because that does add value to your home as I said before just because your assessment goes up doesn't mean your taxes go up if for example the town's rable base through this revaluation process increases by 40% and your home say increases in value only 20% from its current assessment chances are you will see a reduction in your taxes due to the fact that your property is increased at a slower rate than the rest of the Town overall conversely if the town goes up 40% and your property's gone up 60% you will see a tax increase who's going to get those increases as I said before we do not know until the process comes to a conclusion towards the end of the year late in the year everybody will be mailed a letter with the proposed new assessment for their property we hope to have on there an estimation of what your taxes may be again it's only an estimation and at that time you will have the opportunity to meet with the revaluation company if you feel the assessment is incorrect and review you know what they have on record you why you think the assessment should be lower or is out of line if Jason wants to uh cover the review period at all I will let him take care of that okay just want to make clear also that um all properties in town are going to be inspected so it's not just the Residential Properties it's commercial properties as well as well as the exempt properties uh synagogues schools churches all properties will be visited by the uh inspectors and all properties will receive that new value um as Ed said when those value letters are sent out at the end of the year the process is very simple when you receive that letter you can uh call the office and schedule a a brief um meeting with someone from the company that person will go through all the information that's been recorded on your property it'll go through recent sales if it's a residential property to go over sales that have taken place in your neighborhood to show where these new assessments are coming from um what they're being based on so those meetings will take place sometime in the late fall early winter of this year possibly even into the beginning of next year um so you should expect that towards the end of the year also during the inspection process if an inspector comes to your home and you're not there they will leave a notice on your door that says that they were there and when they hope to return for a future inspection if at that time you're still not there maybe you're way in vacation or working they'll leave a second notice that shows an estimation of what is in the house on that card will be a phone number to call for appraisal systems that is the number to call if you have any questions regarding the inspection process the calling to the township assessor's office we're just going to direct you to call the appraisal system number that's on that card and also calling the committee members you can do that however they're really not going to be able to help you at this time at this point it's just an information gathering time and the best place to call if you have any questions regarding the inspections will be the number on that card that is left on your door this is a very lengthly and involved process and having the cooperation of the town's people is of the utmost importance and will make this the process go a lot smoother uh it's nothing that the town wanted to do but it was ordered as Jason and deare said by the county and by the state division of taxation so we're following their instructions on us thank you for your time and have a good weekend