Maplewood and South Orange will join together to conduct a townwide property reassessment in 2016.
As we reported earlier, South Orange Board of Trustees discussed the pending reassessment at its October 12 meeting. Village President Sheena Collum said that in both Maplewood and South Orange the assessed values of properties had fallen below 85% of the market values, necessitating the reassessment.
The reassessment was ordered by the Essex County Board of Taxation; new property values will be effective January 1, 2017.
“It’s effectively the same as a revaluation,” said Township Attorney Roger Desiderio at Tuesday’s Township Committee meeting. There will be door-t0-door home inspections and property owners will be entitled to dispute their new valuation with the tax assessor.
Maplewood last performed an assessment in 2012, after a full revaluation in 2010. South Orange performed a full revaluation in 2007; the last reassessment took place in 2011, with the new home values effective as of Jan. 1, 2012.
The TC authorized Desiderio to being negotiating with South Orange to craft a joint RFP that will be used to hire a contractor to perform the reassessment. “It’s a good idea,” said Desiderio, “and will add continuity to the process.” The cost will be on a line-item basis, meaning each town will pay according to the number of properties — both residential and commercial — that are assessed.
South Orange will likely be the lead agency in the process, though that has yet to be determined.
