Those unhappy with new property values make way to Tyler’s informal reviews
John and Susan Moskal of Denbeau Heights, Centerville Borough, the first couple to arrive Monday for a reassessment informal review, discuss the value of their property with Kim Carns, Tyler Technologies hearing officer.
Ellen and Carl Donahoo of North Bethlehem Township own two parcels, one of which holds a mobile chicken coop. They were among the first wave of residents who had an informal review Monday of their new property values.
What value would a person place on a mobile chicken coop?
“None whatsoever” is the answer Carl and Ellen Donahoo are hoping for in light of Washington County’s first property reassessment in 35 years.
Poultry in motion proved not to be the best bird sanctuary, and the Donahoos’ chickens sadly fell prey to hawks, owls, weasels, coyotes and raccoons. The couple have since chosen not to keep fowl. But the chicken coop, constructed atop two bus chassis, remains on one of their two land parcels in Scenery Hill.
When the couple received their tentative property values based on the reassessment, they found what they believe are multiple errors, one of which was assessing their mobile chicken coop as if it were a permanent structure.
The coop originally stood on posts, but it went mobile when the Donahoos decided to begin building a house in its place 30 years ago. Contacted by phone a few hours after the Donahoos’ informal review, Wesley Graham, Tyler Technology’s project manager for Washington County, said, “We may not have known it was a bus chassis. We took that off the tax roll. People do so much with old school buses and Volkswagen buses, but the chicken coop thing is a first.”
The Donahoos continue to toil on their second home, which they described as little more than a shell. But they were shocked to find that Tyler Technologies assessed them for a natural gas heating system and a bath and a half when the house under construction has no heating source or bathrooms.
“It’s studded out,” Carl Donahoo said.
Since drilling in the Marcellus Shale began, the Donahoos no longer rely on spring water, but they are instead purchasing bottled water at $1 per gallon, which they want to be taken into account.
Graham said Tyler would need to see results of water testing to support the Donahoos’ position that the land is no longer served by a potable water source.
The home in which they live, the home under construction and the chicken coop and another movable building on skids are valued at $310,300, according to Tyler. The tentative property value letter Tyler sent does not assign a value to individual buildings on the 19 acres of land.
A second house on their adjacent 11-acre parcel is missing a rear wall, and the Donahoos plan to demolish the entire building. “They want taxes on that house, and it’s not a house anymore,” Carl Donahoo said after the informal review conducted by Mike McMannama, Tyler Technologies hearing officer. Ellen Donahoo produced Tyler’s photograph of the building that shows its best side, but she questioned how diligent the data collector was when gathering information.
The value of this parcel is $51,700, according to a letter the Donahoos received last week from Tyler Technologies.
Ellen Donahoo also said she attempted to remedy errors on the data mailer Tyler previously sent that includes their construction project.
“I’m surprised that information wasn’t corrected,” Graham said.
And so it went Monday morning at the Chapman Building, West Beau Street and Jefferson Avenue, Washington, nearly three years after the board of commissioners reluctantly awarded a $6.9 million contract to Tyler Technologies to reassess 120,000 properties in Washington County.
Residents of school districts in the Mon Valley and Bentworth have gotten a chance to see the tentative values Tyler has placed on 36,000 properties. Those stunned by the figures are asking in the first round of informal reviews that Tyler recompute the numbers, and another 29,000 property owners could be receiving tentative value letters this week in the Avella, Burgettstown, Fort Cherry, McGuffey and Washington school districts, plus Houston and Canonsburg boroughs.
The first wave of tentative value letters resulted in a spate of calls to Tyler Technologies this week and last at 724-228-5019, and many callers, Graham said, will receive a message to try back later. Steve Manko of Union Township said Monday morning he was unable to get through by phone, so he stopped by the Chapman Building to set up an informal review of what he described as 9.4 acres of swampland worth less than $60,000.
Computer connections that were not available Monday morning have been remedied, according to Graham, but he said 400 to 500 properties from the Mon Valley and Bentworth areas were not yet featuring photographs as expected.
The first property owners through the doors Monday morning were John and Susan Moskal of Denbeau Heights, Centerville Borough, who arrived with photographs of their home and an abandoned, burned-out house across the street.
Susan Moskal said her one-bedroom home was erroneously listed as having a full basement in an area that is just a crawl space. She showed Kim Carns, Tyler hearing officer, photos of the home’s sole kitchen in the basement and an unheated sun porch.
“It’s very small. It’s not worth $84,900,” she told Carns, and asked about the vacant home that was the scene of a fatal fire, “Would you want to live next to that?”
Graham said of the Moskals’ situation, “The appeal officer will take a look at it again. We’ll send people out if it’s necessary.”
Moskal said she was willing to take a day off work to meet with a data collector and discuss her situation.
Those who have informal reviews can, this summer, file a formal appeal with the county to take the matter to the next level.