TOMS RIVER – The county has ordered Toms River to revaluate properties to be more in line with what they should be.
Every property is currently assessed at a certain number. Your taxes are based off of that number. But, as years go by, the real estate market fluctuates while your assessment stays the same. Then, you are either paying too little or too much in taxes.
When too many of the properties in a town are too far away from the fair market values, a revaluation is ordered to bring them back into line.
Chelsea Skuby, the county’s tax administrator, said the values will go on the books for tax year 2020.
Council President Brian Kubiel said that the township is waiting for their plan to be approved by the county before going forward.
A town has the choice of either doing a re-assessment in-house or hiring an outside firm to perform a revaluation. Generally, larger towns do revaluations and smaller towns do re-assessments.
Toms River will need to hire an outside firm, Kubiel said.
The rule of thumb is that some of the properties will have increases in their assessments, some will go down, and some will stay the same. Those who have assessments that are lower than similar homes might expect to pay more. Those who have assessments that are higher than similar homes might expect to pay less. There is an appeal process if you’re not happy with the end result.
There are elaborate calculations that go into determining whether a town needs to undergo a revaluation. If they are more than 15 percent off in either direction for a few years, than it is usually time to have a revaluation. According to the county’s 2018 Equalization Table, Toms River as a whole was valued at 83.42 percent of market value. Last year, it was 83.7 percent. In 2016, it was 86.78 percent.
During a revaluation, inspectors come out to the property and look at the outside and inside. These workers will have identification showing that they are legitimately with the company. They will record information so that the assessment can be calculated later. Residents are urged to write down any pertinent information about the value of the property and give it to the inspectors. They will be noting such things as size, condition, number of bedrooms, and other amenities that people look for in buying a house.
