PRINTER'S NO. 1074
No. 977 Session of 1987
INTRODUCED BY DUFFY, COWELL, ITKIN, TRELLO, DeLUCA, PRESTON,
VAN HORNE, IRVIS, MARKOSEK, PISTELLA, PETRONE AND MICHLOVIC,
APRIL 6, 1987
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON URBAN AFFAIRS, APRIL 6, 1987
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 21, 1939 (P.L.626, No.294), entitled
2 "An act providing for and regulating the assessment and
3 valuation of all subjects of taxation in counties of the
4 second class; creating and prescribing the powers and duties
5 of a Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review;
6 imposing duties on certain county and city officers;
7 abolishing the board for the assessment and revision of taxes
8 in such counties; and prescribing penalties," further
9 providing for assessments, reassessments and appeals; and
10 providing for errors in assessments and refunds.
11 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
12 hereby enacts as follows:
13 Section 1. Section 10 of the act of June 21, 1939 (P.L.626,
14 No.294), referred to as the Second Class County Assessment Law,
15 amended October 11, 1984 (P.L.870, No.169), is amended to read:
16 Section 10. (a) The board shall, as provided by this act
17 and by the provisions of existing law, examine and revise the
18 assessments and valuations, increasing or decreasing the same as
19 in their judgment may seem proper, and shall add thereto such
20 property or subjects of taxation as may have been omitted.
21 (b) After such revision, the board shall, by rule, fix
1 convenient times for the hearing of appeals from said
2 assessments and valuations.
3 (c) In any appeal of an assessment the board shall make the
4 following determinations:
5 (1) The current market value for the tax year in question.
6 (2) The common level ratio.
7 (3) The fair market value, as determined in accordance with
8 section 402 of the act of May 22, 1933 (P.L.853, No.155), known
9 as "The General County Assessment Law."
10 (d) The board, after determining the current market value of
11 the property for the tax year in question, shall then apply the
12 established predetermined ratio to such value unless the common
13 level ratio varies by more than fifteen percent (15%) from the
14 established predetermined ratio, in which case the board shall
15 apply the common level ratio to the current market value of the
16 property for the tax year in question. For the initial year of
17 the implementation of county-wide reassessment, appeals shall be
18 solely on the basis of fair market value.
19 (e) Nothing herein shall prevent any appellant from
20 appealing any base year valuation without reference to ratio.
21 (f) Except as provided for in subsection (g), the valuations
22 determined in accordance with this section shall stand as the
23 valuations for the assessments of all county and institution
24 district taxes and for such other political subdivisions as levy
25 their taxes on county assessments and valuations in the county
26 until the next triennial assessment.
27 (g) Persons who have suffered catastrophic losses to their
28 property shall have the right to appeal before the board, within
29 the remainder of the county fiscal year in which the
30 catastrophic loss occurred, or within six (6) months of the date
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1 on which the catastrophic loss occurred, whichever time period
2 is longer. The duty of the board shall be to reassess the value
3 of the property in the following manner: the value of the
4 property before the catastrophic loss based on the percentage of
5 the taxable year for which the property stood at its former
6 value, added to the value of the property after the catastrophic
7 loss, based on the percentage of the taxable year for which the
8 property stood at its reduced value. Any property improvements
9 made subsequent to the catastrophic loss in the same tax year
10 shall not be included in the reassessment as herein described
11 for that tax year. Any adjustment in an assessment pursuant to
12 this subsection shall be reflected by the appropriate taxing
13 authorities in the form of a credit for the next succeeding tax
14 year. For purposes of this subsection, the phrase "catastrophic
15 loss" shall mean any loss due to mine subsidence, fire, flood or
16 other natural disaster which affects the physical state of the
17 real property and which exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the
18 market value of the real property prior to the loss.
19 Section 2. Section 11 of the act, amended December 13, 1982
20 (P.L.1186, No.272), is amended to read:
21 Section 11. When the triennial assessments shall be fixed,
22 either for the whole county or in districts thereof, or when the
23 established predetermined ratio has been changed within the
24 county, notice of that fact shall be given, by publication in at
25 least two newspapers of general circulation in the county, of
26 the time when appeals will be heard and a copy of the
27 assessments made in boroughs and townships shall be placed in
28 some public place in each such borough or township by the
29 assessor. The board shall adopt rules and regulations governing
30 the right to and the holding of appeals, and the practice and
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1 procedure thereat. Such rules and regulations shall be
2 published, together with the notices of triennial assessments as
3 above provided.
4 The board shall provide simple appeal forms which shall
5 contain simple questions clearly expressed, which will require
6 answers having a direct bearing on the true value of the
7 property as of the period for which such assessment was made. No
8 other type of questions shall be contained thereon.
9 In the year one thousand nine hundred forty-three, the board
10 shall permit appeals to be taken from assessments up to and
11 including June first, and no later, including all those where
12 the 1943 taxes have been paid in whole or in part. In subsequent
13 years, no appeals may be taken from assessments of properties
14 [within cities of the second class after November fifteenth of
15 the year preceding the period for which the assessment becomes
16 effective, and for all other assessments no appeal shall be
17 taken] after the last day of February of the year in which the
18 assessment first becomes effective. All appeals filed with the
19 board prior to this amendment shall be valid, if otherwise in
20 accordance with existing law. At all appeal hearings, the
21 property owner or his agent appearing for him shall have the
22 right to be represented by counsel and to be accompanied by
23 witnesses or assistants.
24 If a taxpayer has filed an appeal from an assessment, so long
25 as the appeal is pending before the board or before a court on
26 appeal from the determination of the board, as provided by
27 statute, the appeal will also be taken as an appeal by the
28 taxpayer on the subject property for any valuation for any
29 triennial or intertriennial assessment subsequent to the filing
30 of such appeal with the board and prior to the determination of
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1 the appeal by the board or the court. The board shall hold its
2 hearings and make its final determination of the subsequent
3 years in question in the same manner as for the year or years
4 for which the original appeal was filed. This provision shall be
5 applicable to all pending appeals as well as future appeals.
6 After the hearing of appeals, the board shall take such
7 action in regard thereto as may be right and proper, and shall,
8 within ten (10) days thereafter, complete such action and make
9 their determinations, and immediately give due notice to the
10 appellant by registered mail.
11 Section 3. Section 13 of the act, amended September 16, 1961
12 (P.L.1353, No.602) and October 11, 1984 (P.L.870, No.169), is
13 amended to read:
14 Section 13. The proper assessors shall, between the
15 triennial assessments, revise any assessment or valuation
16 according to right and equity by correcting errors and by adding
17 thereto any property, improvements or subjects of taxation which
18 may have been omitted or any new property, improvements or
19 subjects of taxation which may have come into being since the
20 last triennial assessment. Any property, improvements or
21 subjects of taxation which may have been omitted shall be
22 assessed and made subject to taxation for the period during
23 which said property, improvements or subjects of taxation shall
24 have been omitted but in no event to exceed the period of five
25 calendar years preceding the year in which the property,
26 improvements or subjects of taxation omitted is first added to
27 the assessment roll. Any such assessments as are made pursuant
28 to the provisions of this paragraph shall be subject to appeal
29 in the same manner as other assessments made pursuant to this
30 act. Taxes levied on any such assessment shall not be made
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1 subject to the payment of any interest and penalties otherwise
2 provided by law, except as the same are computed from the date
3 of assessment made pursuant to this section. No bona fide
4 purchaser of any property or subject of taxation without
5 knowledge that the property or subject of taxation was omitted
6 from assessment for purposes of taxation shall be subject to any
7 taxation based upon the additional assessment made pursuant to
8 this section.
9 They shall also add thereto the names of any persons who may
10 have moved into such district and strike therefrom the names of
11 any persons who have removed from such districts since the last
12 triennial assessment.
13 The proper assessors shall also revise assessments and
14 valuations between the triennial assessments by increasing or
15 decreasing the same where the value of the property or subjects
16 of taxation assessed or valued has changed by reason of any
17 change of conditions thereon or adjacent thereto or in the
18 vicinity thereof, or for the reason that the property assessed
19 or valued has been subdivided or laid out into a plan of lots or
20 other subdivisions, or for the reason that improvements have
21 been placed thereon or added thereto, or for the reason that any
22 public or other improvement has been made adjacent thereto or in
23 the vicinity thereof, or for the reason that the assessor and
24 the majority of the board decides that the assessor erred in the
25 value which he placed on the property or subjects of taxation
26 when making the triennial assessment, or where, for any other
27 reason whatsoever, the value of the property has changed and it
28 seems to the board necessary and equitable to make a change in
29 the valuation thereof. The assessors shall also, between the
30 triennial assessments in all cases where it is apparent that any
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1 assessment is not in accord with the generality or uniform
2 standard of assessments, revise and correct the same by
3 increasing or decreasing the same where the value of the
4 property or subjects of taxation assessed do not conform to the
5 generality or uniform standard of assessments.
6 No land assessed as acreage or unimproved property, which is
7 subsequently laid out in residential lots and the plan of such
8 lots is recorded, shall be assessed in excess of the total
9 assessment of the land as acreage or unimproved property until
10 such time as the lots are actually improved with permanent
11 construction of any new building and either sold to a bona fide
12 purchaser or occupied for residential purposes. Each such lot as
13 sold or occupied shall be subject to reassessment beginning with
14 the date of such sale or occupancy, and new construction thereon
15 shall be subject to reassessment as provided above. When a
16 department or agency of the Commonwealth or a municipality has
17 ordered a sewer connection ban because of a lack of adequate
18 sewage treatment facilities, the real estate affected by the
19 order shall be reassessed for the duration of the order. The
20 reassessment shall be based on the value of the best use of the
21 land during the period of the reassessment. New single and
22 multiple dwellings constructed for residential purposes and
23 improvements to existing unoccupied dwellings or improvements to
24 existing structures for purposes of conversion to dwellings,
25 shall not be valued or assessed for purposes of real property
26 taxes until (1) occupied, (2) conveyed to a bona fide purchaser,
27 or (3) thirty months from the first day of the month after which
28 the building permit was issued or, if no building permit or
29 other notification of improvement was required, then from the
30 date construction commenced. The assessment of any multiple
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1 dwelling because of occupancy shall be upon such proportion
2 which the value of the occupied portion bears to the value of
3 the entire multiple dwelling. As used in this paragraph, the
4 word "dwellings" means buildings or portions thereof intended
5 for permanent use as homes or residences and the phrase
6 "affected by the order" shall be defined as the application for
7 a building permit and the denial to the applicant of permission
8 to proceed with the building or construction because of a sewer
9 ban order.
10 All assessments required to be made by the proper assessors
11 in the year between the triennial assessment shall be returned
12 to the board not later than the first Monday of September of the
13 year preceding the one for which it is made.
14 Section 4. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
15 Section 13.1. Whenever through mathematical or clerical
16 error an assessment is made more than it should have been, and
17 taxes are paid on such incorrect assessment, the Board of
18 Property Assessment, Appeals and Review, upon discovery of such
19 error and correction of the assessment, shall so inform the
20 appropriate taxing district or districts, which shall make a
21 refund to the taxpayer or taxpayers for the period of the error
22 or six years, whichever is less, from the date of application
23 for refund or discovery of such error by the board. For the
24 purposes of this section, in counties of the second class,
25 "mathematical or clerical error" shall mean the difference
26 between the assessment as certified for a given tax year by the
27 Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review and the
28 assessment upon which taxes are billed and paid. Reassessment,
29 revision of assessment or certification of assessment with or
30 without application by the owner as a decision of judgment based
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1 upon the method of assessment by the board shall not constitute
2 an error under this section.
3 Section 5. Section 17.1 of the act, added March 6, 1956
4 (1955 P.L.1224, No.379), is amended to read:
5 Section 17.1. On or before the fifteenth day of January, the
6 Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review shall certify
7 to the clerk or secretary of each political subdivision coming
8 within the scope of this act, within the county, the total value
9 of real property appearing in the assessment roll and taxable by
10 the respective political subdivisions. The time limit within
11 which the political subdivision is entitled to appeal from the
12 actions of the board shall commence to run on the day such
13 certification is mailed or otherwise delivered. Cities of the
14 second class may submit appeals after November 15, as long as
15 there is compliance with section 11 of this act.
16 Section 6. (a) Sections 1, 2, 3 and 5 of this act shall
17 apply to appeals initiated after January 1, 1987.
18 (b) Section 4 of this act shall apply to errors discovered
19 on or after January 1, 1981.
20 Section 7. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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