BOARD OF ASSESSORS
John R.
Swindlehurst, II
Bryan Clark
Bud Noyes,
appraiser
Janice
VandeBogart, Town Administrator
Meeting was called to order
at
The minutes of the October
19th meeting were reviewed.
Tim Terragni made the motion to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by John Swindlehurst,
all were in favor and the minutes were signed.
The board reviewed and
signed the “Equalization – Municipal Assessment Data Sheets” required by the N.
H. Department of Revenue to formulate the 2003 ratio for the Town of
Intents to cut timber were
received from Kathleen LaFreniere, E3-02-02 and Martha Hammond,
E3-01-1,2,3,4,&5. The board approved
both and signed.
Abatements were reviewed and
accepted for the following:
* N. H.
Traditional Homes. G4-01-01 $1,314.57
G4-01-12 $1,493.64
G4-01-13 $1,431.30
·
Bud Noyes
explained that this property is waterfront property with restrictions that say
that the owner cannot have a septic system, electricity, or water. This property could not be for residential
use. Bud stated that he went to the property to assess it because Mr. Bolton
had applied for a building permit for a shed.
He was not aware of the restrictions at the time and assessed the land
and building for $54,900. Mr. Bolton
contacted him and mailed him proof of the restrictions and Bud brought the
assessment down to $42,050. He
recommended an abatement of $12,850.
John
Swindlehurst made the motion to approve the abatement of $12,850 on this
lot. Tim Terragni seconded the motion
and all were in favor.
Appointments with the
public:
Ronald Lekebusch: F2-01-06: Mr. Lekebusch was present and met with the
Board regarding his current assessment.
Bud stated that Mr. Lekebusch’s property was not properly assessed and
in his review of all current use properties he discovered an error and made
corrections. Ron admitted that it was
his mistake when the current use map was drawn and explained how there was a
mix up on the front footage. He said that he and Bud had tried to work this
out. Ron stated that he had noticed a
large increase in his value of about $4000 mainly because of the valuation not
only because of the increase in the tax rate itself. He stated that there was a discrepancy as to what
was drawn on his current use map and what he was taxed for and agreed that the
frontage should have been triangulated.
Bud had re-calculated according to the map.
Bud stated that he had
recalculated and came up with a reduction of $31,550 in assessment. Ron did not agree with Bud’s
calculations. Ron further stated that he
felt that he had been paying on 75 ft of frontage and would like to leave it
that way. Ron said he did not agree
with Bud’s calculations and Bud stated he would like to leave it to the
board. John Swindlehurst stated that the
board will review this and get back to Ron.
Tom Maille, A3-01-03: Mr. Maille stated that the
reason he was here was not because the tax rate went up but because his
assessment went up. He stated that he
built a barn in 2002 and put in an in ground pool and believed that he was
already being taxed accordingly in 2003 but Bud stated that he was not taxed
for the barn or the pool. He was only
being taxed in 2003 for the foundation on the barn. Bud stated that the paving charge for the
driveway was an error and was taken off.
Tom went over the conversation he had with the previous town assessor
and he really did believe that he was being taxed last year for the barn and
pool. When he got his tax bill this year
he could not believe the increase. Bud
stated that his assessment was not properly done on the land and Bud had made
corrections there as well. Bud gave the
example of the driveway and the house lot being essentially taxed as
backland. The driveway had to be
assessed as frontage and the house lot value was adjusted as well.
Mr. Maille asked what
prompted his lot to be reviewed and adjusted.
The Board stated that Bud Noyes had been asked to review all the current
use parcels to correct errors and to update according to a directive from the
courts as a result of a recent court decision regarding current use valuation.
Ralph Fellbaum, H2-4-6: Ralph was concerned about his building values
going up $17,000 and he was not sure why.
He stated that his square footage on
his building had changed along with the multiplier per square foot. He also wanted to know why the assessor had
inspected his property this year as he had not
made improvements. Bud Noyes
stated that the card was flagged for a pick up and that was why he went to see
it. Bud went on to say that when he got
to the site he discovered that the sketch on the back of the card did not match
what was there so he re-measured the building. He found the square feet to be 2200 sq. ft. and he used the 1997 manual to calculate the
price. He also found that the garage was
not measured correctly and he corrected that as well. The card had read 2396 sq. ft. and he
corrected it to 2200 sq. ft. and used the correct sq. ft. price of $69. The square footage had been lowered but the
assessment was higher because the previous assessor had used $60 per square
foot.
Mr. Fellbaum stated that he
had a bank do an evaluation on his house to get an equity loan recently. They used two properties in town ( E2-01-08
and J2-01-13) and he looked at their tax assessments and they are lower than
his. He wanted to know why his was more
then their assessments. Bud Noyes stated
he would review these properties but Bud and the board agreed that bank appraisals
are not preformed in the same manner as town appraisals for tax purposes.
The Board asked Bud Noyes
and Mr. Fellbaum to set up an appointment to review the home together. Mr. Fellbaum stated that he only had two
bathrooms and the card said he had three.
Everyone agreed that the extra bathroom would be removed.
Abatement: It was brought to the board’s attention that
a tax bill had been mailed to the wrong owner of record. The lot in question was lot K1-04-18, Clara
M. Shelton. The abatement was signed and
a warrant to collect taxes from the correct owner, Thomas & LeeAnn
Warrant to collect added
taxes:
·
B4-05-21, Bruce and Rebecca
Toter: There was a new home added to
this property in 2004 and it was not entered into the computer for tax
billing. This resulted in an added tax
of $3,815.01.
·
B8-01-08, Michael &
Heidi Tanner: An update was made to
their assessment by the appraiser and was not entered into the computer. This resulted in an added tax of $92.86.
The warrant was signed and
will be passed on to the Tax Collector.
Other: Bud Noyes said he had received
a call from Joan and Henry Burnham regarding the assessment on their property,
lot B3-02-04 & 4A. They have
finished their home and Bud did an inside appraisal this year. Bud stated that he put the house in class 5
but gave a depreciation because it is 5 years old and has some signs of rot in
places and other problems. Mrs. Burnham
was very concerned about the increase in their assessment. She would like to talk with the Board about
the assessment and to see if they can put more land in current use to help with
taxes. They now have eight acres out of
current use and would like to change that to five acres. The board recommended leaving the assessment
alone for now but would be willing to meet with them.
The board discussed Ron
Lekebusch’s property again. It was their
decision to have Bud Noyes re-check all the figures and let the board know his
findings.
The board discussed Tom
Maille’s property also and decided there would be no change.
The board was informed of a
request from a resident to review the manual used by the revaluation company
for the complete revaluation of the town.
It was noted that the manual is available for viewing at the town
office. Also, a request was made for a
list of buildings exempted by the revaluation.
This is contained in the minutes of the Board of Assessors and they are
also available at the town office. The
resident will be informed.
Motion to adjourn the
meeting was passed.
Adjourned at 8:50 pm.
______________________________
Timothy
Terragni, Chairman
______________________________
John
R. Swindlehurst, II
______________________________
Bryan
Clark
Dunbarton Board of Assessors
Janice VandeBogart,
Recording Secretary
Town Administrator