County resident expresses concerns over reappraisal

Letter to the Editor:
To the editor:
With the notification by the County Assessor that con-tractors and others soon will descend on Franklin County to evaluate property, home invaders – such as burglars – must be ecstatic thinking about the potential cornucopia of riches in front of them. Apparently all they will need to do is show up and make sure you know about the letter saying somebody from (what's the difference!) the Assessor's Office will be dropping by to look at your home.
Not to worry, the letter's header said the letter was from the County Assessor so it must be OK. So you let them in.
Ca-ching!
Where's my great-grandmother's sterling-silver gold-wash baptismal shell?!
Since the Assessor's Office appears to be loosey-goosey, but determined, about invit-ing itself – or its contractor – into our homes to gather data for use in assessing property taxes, the following are some of my – a property owner’s – specific requirements. Refer-ences below to “property owner” also include a repre-sentative of the property own-er designated in writing by the property owner.
So...you want to visit my house.
Prior to visit
• The property owner shall have the choice of whether a survey is conducted or not.
• Appointments for the survey shall be set for a spe-cific time and date. The ap-pointment can be rescheduled or canceled for the necessity or convenience of the property owner or survey personnel.
Upon arrival at the proper-ty to be surveyed:
• The person in charge of the survey shall immediately make known to the property owner the arrival of all per-sonnel on the property for the survey and introduce them to the property owner.
• The person in charge of the survey shall explicitly identify to the property owner all property to be surveyed and who will be doing the survey(s).
• Photo IDs shall be worn by all survey (contractor and Assessor's Office) personnel; the IDs shall be worn on their person and be visible at all times; copies of the IDs or all (image and text) information thereon shall be presented to the property owner for perma-nent retention by the property owner.
• Proof of professional surety bonds for all contractor and Assessor's Office person-nel shall be presented to the property owner for permanent retention by the property owner.
• No audio or video record-ing equipment (including cell or smart phones) shall be al-lowed within structure(s) that are surveyed.
• Notes or drawings shall be made using only pencils, pens, and paper.
• Measurements shall be made using only traditional measuring devices (for exam-ple, tape measures and rulers).
• Only one person shall be allowed to survey the interior of the residence and the sur-veyor shall be accompanied by the property owner.
• Time allotted for survey-ing the interior of a residence shall be limited to no more than fifteen minutes; the sur-veyor may request the proper-ty owner to permit additional time for completion of the survey. “No” extension of permissible time is an ac-ceptable response.
• There shall not be exteri-or photography within fifty feet of the object or structure being photographed.
After the survey:
• Post-survey requests for additional information or ex-planations may be directed to the property owner. It shall be the choice of the property owner whether or not to re-spond to such queries.
• Copies of all data record-ed and reports prepared by the contractor as part of the sur-vey for the Assessor's Office and forwarded to the Asses-sor's Office also shall be made available to the property own-er.
• Copies of all evaluations, analyses, and other prepared outputs pertaining to the sur-veyed property prepared by the Assessor's Office shall be made available to the property owner.
Welcome! Well…we'll see about that.
Larry Meyer,
Alden

Hampton Chronicle

9 Second Street NW
Hampton, IA 50441
Phone: 641-456-2585
Fax: 1-800-340-0805
Email: news@midamericapub.com

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