AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ASSESSMENT FUNCTIONS IN ALL COUNTY GOVERNMENTS.

This Act transfers the sections pertaining to assessment functions and the New Castle County Board of Assessment Review from the subchapter governing the functions of the Department of Land Use to the subchapter governing the functions of the Department of Administration and updates reference to the Department of Land Use to the Office of Finance in Chapter 83 of Title 9. It changes the New Castle County Board of Assessment Review from 8 members appointed by New Castle County Council and 1 member appointed by the County Executive, with the advice and consent of County Council, to 8 regular members and 3 alternate members appointed by New Castle County Council and 1 regular member appointed by the County Executive, with the advice and consent of County Council. It changes the Sussex County Board of Assessment Review from 5 members to 5 regular members and 3 alternate members. It permits Sussex County Council to provide for the term, residency requirement, compensation, and procedure for filling vacancies. It authorizes the appointment of a representative called a “referee” or a panel of 3 members of the Board to hear assessment appeals. It increases the time period in which the appeal process may take place from one month to three months. In all counties, it removes the requirement that a board of assessment or Department or Office of Finance to show the names of the owners, last owners, or reputed owners, the value of the property, and the amount of each owner’s assessment in their written assessments. In all counties, it clarifies that all property subject to assessment shall be assessed at its fair market value as of the date of the most recent reassessment base year in the county in which the property is located. It removes the requirement in Sussex County that the written assessment must state whether unimproved land is timberland, swamp, or marsh, and the number of acres. It provides the Board of Assessment Review for New Castle County the ability to determine the schedule and manner of hearings necessary to handle its higher volume of appeals in a timely manner and increases the time for the Board to provide appealing parties notice of the hearing from 5 to 10 days. Further, it changes the date that the Board of Assessment for Sussex County or its representatives must hear appeals and make additions, alterations, or corrections to assessments from February 15 through March 1 to March 1 through May 31 of each year or until all appeals have been heard and acted upon during a year of reassessment. It removes the requirement that the Board or representatives must sit in their offices during each secular day to hear such appeals. It provides that duplicate assessments may be in the form of a widely accepted electronic file format. It clarifies that when a board of assessment, Department or Office of Finance makes a supplemental assessment that does not alter, amend, or make a new one, it is treated like a general or annual assessment and the notice provisions required of an altered, amended, or new assessment do not apply. In all counties, it provides that any notices required to be given under Title 9, Chapter 83 may be sent by e-mail when the property owner has provided an electronic mail address for notice purposes. In all counties, it provides that each board of assessment or Department or Office of Finance shall publish notices of the place, and the website if made available electronically, where the annual and supplemental assessment roll may be inspected together with a notice of the time and place of the sittings to hear appeals. It changes the publication requirements for such notices in the case of Kent and Sussex Counties to one time in at least 2 newspapers and in the case of New Castle County to the newspaper with the highest general circulation. It clarifies the method for determining taxation value, frequency of assessments, and assessment rate for mobile homes by providing that Ad Valorem assessments for mobile homes shall be developed in the same manner as real property and be predicated on their market value and taxed at the same rate as real property throughout the county and school district in which the mobile home is located and in the name of the owner. In instances where the land is leased, the land upon which the mobile home is located shall be separately assessed and shall not include the value of the mobile home located thereon. It removes the provision that mobile homes be subject to a tax based on their value as rated in a nationally recognized appraisal guide and that a recognized guide be used to determine the assessed value on mobile homes. It removes the provision that for model homes not appearing in a guide, the board of assessors must contact a reputable mobile home dealer to determine value.