Pawtuckaway Lake property owners filed 72 abatement applications with the Town of Nottingham for the 2007 tax year. The Board of Selectmen has explicitly denied 36 of those abatements. According to the Board at the June 25th Selectmen’s meeting, 11 abatements were denied because the property owner did not write their map and lot number on their application or did not provide enough supporting material. The remainder were denied, as the form letter property owners received yesterday states, “…based on the fact that the submitted appraisal is fundamentally flawed…”.  There were 8 non-lake abatement requests filed, the Board granted 4 and did not process 4.

The State of NH deadline for a Town to process abatement applications is July 1st. Any abatement that has not been processed is automatically considered denied after the July 1st deadline, whether or not you have heard from the Town. Therefore, according to the State, the remaining 36 abatement applications have also been denied. Property owners who are considering appealing the Town’s denial have from July 1st until September 1st, to file their appeals with either Superior Court or the Board of Tax and Land Appeal.

The Board of Selectmen did state that they intend to look at all the abatements regardless of the State deadline and will send some kind of notification to homeowners about their findings. When asked if property owners should wait to hear from the Town before filing an appeal, Chairmen Bill Netishen suggested that property owners who want to file an appeal should make that decision themselves and not necessarily wait to hear from the Town before doing so.

It is hard to imagine that the Board will grant abatements after the deadlilne to the remaining property owners when the basis for those appraisals is very similar to those “fundamentally flawed” appraisals they just denied. Of course, people will have to use their own judgment about whether, when, and how to file. The Taxpayers Alliance is currently exploring our options.

On the front page of today's Union Leader newspaper a story titled "Lakeside valuations spark firestorm" (<-click link to read article) covers the current status of the Pawtuckaway Lake revaluation conundrum. While the Taxpayers Alliance believes the report is validation of the concerns that we have had about the revaluation from the beginning, the Department of Revenue thinks it doesn't represent a problem. Town officials aren't sure what to think. We think any reasonable person reading the report will be able to interpret that there are a number of major problems with the way Avitar modeled our land values.

The Taxpayers Alliance has made mp3 audio files of the May 27th, 2008 Nottingham Selectmen's Meeting where independent consultant William Krajeski presented his findings from his formal review of the Pawtuckaway Lake revaluation. There are two mp3 files available, the formal presentation (80 minutes) and the Q&A session (25 minutes). We know that many of our members were not able to attend the meeting, so this is your chance not to miss it. It is well worth the time, Mr. Krajeski did a very commendable job both in his statistical analysis and his plain spoken presentation of the data.

One of the articles at the Special Town Meeting called for the Town to hire a consultant to review the Pawtuckaway Lake Revaluation. At last night's selectmens meeting, consultant William J. Krajeski presented his findings. Mr. Krajeski provided a thorough, well articulated, presentation that addressed most of the issues the Taxpayers Alliance had with the revaluation.  We will be providing some feedback about the report after we have had some time to digest it. In the meantime, the Town has published a copy of the report (excluding the appendix) on the Town Web site. The report can be downloaded from here: Pawtuckaway Revaluation Report

As many of you know, the Alliance negotiated a volume discount with a local company to assist property owners with appraisals for their 2007 abatement claims. A total of 51 Pawtuckaway Lake property owners, roughly 16% of the 327 total properties reassessed, took advantage of this program.

The Town of Nottingham required that all supporting material for abatements be filed by April 4th, 2008. The appraisers just finished the final appraisal and have supplied us with some information about the results (except for those property owners who chose not to share their data).

According to the NH Real Estate Appraiser Board, the State of New Hampshire does not require that all individuals holding themselves out to the public as a real estate appraiser be licensed. However, Title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 requires that all appraisals performed in connection with federally related transactions (i.e. most mortgages) shall be performed only by certified or licensed individuals.

New Hampshire State law further mandates that any real estate appraisal service performed by an individual licensed or certified under the NH Real Estate Appraiser Board shall be subject to the supervision of the board. Continued...

State law provides a means for a Town's Assessors to put aside funds from each tax levy in a reserve that is called an Overlay. This account is established in anticipation that a certain percentage of the tax levy may end up being abated. Individual tax abatements are paid out of this fund. The final amount of the overlay account is determined by the Assessors and added to the tax rate without appropriation (meaning its only purpose is for abatements), In the State of NH the overlay cannot be greater than 5% of the tax levied.

For the 2007 tax year the Board of Selectmen, as the Town's Assessors, chose to set aside an overlay of $70,000. This is the pool of funds they set aside to be used to grant Nottingham residents abatements for the 2007 tax year.

What is an appraisal?

An appraisal is defined as an opinion of value by professional appraisal standards (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, see below). Appraisers consider appraising to be both an art and a science. You probably have an opinion of the value of your home. Your opinion and a professional appraiser's opinion may be the same. But appraisers are required to be objective and impartial in their analyses and opinions. A professional appraiser has been trained in appraisal methodology and looks at how your home compares with sales and listings of homes similar to yours, considers many factors such as price trends and proximity to a freeway, complies with professional standards, and usually completes a written report.  Continued...

Like most states in the United States, New Hampshire’s tax abatement process puts the burden on proof upon the applicant. In most cases this requires an appraisal report which then becomes the basis for the tax abatement appeal. The tax abatement process can be cumbersome and confusing. As a result, many property owners are reluctant to file a tax abatement application.  Continued...

Now that the tax bills are out, what are the options available for those residents negatively affected by the recent reassessment of Pawtuckaway Lake properties? An article detailing the recent work of the Taxpayers Alliance volunteers has just been posted. This article will explain the avenues that have been explored, the knowledge that was learned, and the conclusions that were reached about how to proceed from here.

As you will see, the path ahead is not clear and the decisions that have to be made are tough ones. We hope this article provides some assistance to our members in making these personal decisions. A copy of the article is available for download as a pdf file here: What's Next?

It was very disappointing for the Nottingham residents watching the Selectmen’s meeting on cable TV on December 17th, 2007. It was clear that the Board did not understand the intentions and expectations of the voters who petitioned and subsequently passed the six warrant articles at the Special Town Meeting, and therefore, the Board will possibly take action contrary to the intent of the articles passed or will be inclined to take no action.

To assist the Selectmen, the Taxpayers Alliance has prepared this list of articles, the intention of petitioning them, and the expectations of the voters who passed them at Special Town Meeting. We believe it was clear to everyone in attendance that inaction by the Board of Selectmen was not the mandate from the voters.

Click here for a copy of the Letter to the Board of Selectmen: Letter to BOS

At the December 15th, 2007 Special Town Meeting all six warrant articles petitioned by the Pawtuckaway Lake Taxpayers Alliance passed by majority vote. According to the Town Moderator, 389 Registered voters turned out for the six hour meeting. There was alot of healthy debate about taxation, assessing, standards, and oversight before the articles were brought to a vote by secret ballot. The following table shows the results of the vote on each Warrant Article: