Was your Jackson County tax assessment sent out late? What that means for your appeal
While thousands of Jackson County homeowners have armed themselves with home comparisons and made appointments to contest their property assessments in recent weeks, other homeowners in the county have been left wondering whether their value notices will ever arrive in the mail.
The assessment department’s website states that value notices “should be mailed by June 15,” but this timeline hasn’t proven accurate for some homeowners.
Linda in Brookside, who asked to be identified only by her first name, told The Star that her notice didn’t arrive in the mail until Saturday, June 24.
“Waiting for notice from the county when friends and acquaintances had received theirs in May is inexcusable,” she said, adding that she is now gathering documents to bring to her review meeting. “An on-time notice from the county would have helped us avoid working on our information gathering over a holiday weekend.”
Linda isn’t alone. Other residents have taken to social media to share their experiences of assessments arriving as recently as Tuesday. One, Greg Callaghan of Lone Jack, said this has left him with no time to prepare for a review meeting.
“There are zero comps available,” he told The Star Thursday, adding that he lives in a converted barn. “I will have to wing it (and) try to get assessors to give me their comps and argue it’s a finished barn, not a mansion.”
A handful of commercial property owners have filed a lawsuit against the county for these late notice arrivals, claiming that they violate state law. Callaghan hopes to join the lawsuit as well as appealing his home valuation.
Late value notices may violate Missouri law, lawsuit claims
The lateness of value notices might seem like a minor inconvenience — but for homeowners contesting their valuations, it can reduce the amount of time they have to file an appeal.
Missouri law states that “whenever any assessor shall increase the valuation of any real property, he or she shall forthwith notify the record owner on or before June fifteenth of such increase.” A recent lawsuit claims that notices received after that date may not be valid.
“It’s our view that they cannot reassess the properties at this point in time,” said attorney Kenneth McClain, who is representing the property owners. “The goal of the lawsuit would be to say, hey, you can have your tax based on the properly noticed assessment that you gave in the last time period, but you can’t raise it until you’ve given proper notice.”
The lawsuit is currently in its very early stages, and needs court approval to become a class action suit that would include all property owners who received their notices late.
But even if it gets this certification, McClain said that the case will take far longer than the time frame to appeal your property value to the county directly. For that reason, his firm is urging homeowners not to forego this official avenue — even if they hope to be part of the lawsuit.
“It’s our recommendation to go ahead and file an appeal if you feel like it’s appropriate,” he said.
If you disagree with your property valuation, you must file an appeal by July 10. You can do so on the assessment department’s website, where you will also have the options to upload documents, request an interior inspection or make an appointment for an informal review. Some homeowners have also made informal review appointments by calling 1-877-895-9675.
What should I do if my value notice still hasn’t arrived?
By this point, most homeowners have received their value notice from the county. But if you haven’t gotten yours, there are a few options you can use.
Assessment department director Gail McCann Beatty told The Star that those who still need their property value notice should email the assessment department at assessment@jacksongov.org with the subject line “Need Value Notice.”
Department employees are actively answering emails, and requests for value notices often take priority over more complex requests because they can be completed quickly.
“We’ll take care of those first. We want to make sure we take care of those to give people time to file their appeal,” Beatty said.
You can also go onto the assessment department’s website and look up the assessed value of your property or any other one in Jackson County — and how much that value has increased over the past five years. You can look up properties by address, the owner’s name or the parcel number.
Nine-digit parcel numbers represent personal property, usually meaning vehicles. Real estate parcel numbers are 17 digits long with lots of dashes, and usually return three property values: “market value,” “taxable value” and “assessed value.”
The market value shows the assessment department’s full valuation of your home, a department employee confirmed to The Star over email. To see the percentage increase of your home’s value, look at how the market value in 2023 compares to the market value in 2021.
Do you have more questions about your property value in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published June 30, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
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