
Media Release
February 17, 2006
Media Contacts:
Rosann Doran
Public Information Officer
303.438.6308
Broomfield chooses better way to comply
with state assessment requirements
Listening to concerns from Broomfield residents, City and County Manager George Di Ciero announced today that there is a better way to comply with state assessment requirements regarding on-site examinations of Broomfield properties.
“We took a look at this, and there really is another way, a better way, to value homes. We respect property owners’ desire for privacy,” Di Ciero said.
While on-site inspections are common in some counties, it has not been practiced by Broomfield’s legacy counties, Di Ciero said. Since the process is unfamiliar to most Broomfield homeowners, Di Ciero said the city will proceed in a different manner.
Di Ciero said the Assessor’s office will proceed instead by attempting to obtain information voluntarily from homeowners by way of a survey as opposed to an on-site inspection. In addition, pictures will eventually be taken of the outsides of the homes in order to satisfy the requirements of a drive-by review.
Broomfield’s database includes approximately 9,000 residential properties that have not had any type of review or inspection since Broomfield became a county. It is probable that these properties had not been inspected by the legacy counties for years.
In order to have the most accurate database, on-site physical inspections over the next five years were previously planned for 2,000 of these properties.
In Colorado, county assessors are charged with creating fair and equitable values on all properties in their jurisdictions by having the most accurate data possible. Assessors are audited each year to assure properties are valued equitably using statistical analysis of sold properties. In order to assure equitable values are placed on properties that have sold and those that have not sold, an accurate database of characteristics is important to update and maintain on a routine basis.
The regulations established by the state Property Tax Administrator require a number of tasks to be performed in order to maintain accurate records, including:
- Drive-by review/overview of each economic/neighborhood area; exterior review of the quality, condition and remaining economic life of all buildings; updating a property characteristics data form;
- On-site physical inspection, including the same tasks as the drive-by review plus re-measuring and diagramming if any changes were made since the last inspection.
- Office review, consisting of an examination of characteristics of each parcel in the database prior to recalculation of values every odd year;
Records processing, such as examining building permits from our building department every two weeks for new construction, basement finishes, additions to existing improvements, etc.