Assessor’s office appeals Villines’ appraisal ruling

— The Pulaski County assessor’s office has appealed a decision by County Judge Buddy Villines that would keep the appraised value of a cardiologist’s west Little Rock house at just over $2.1 million, about $516,000 less than the assessor thinks it’s worth.

During this year’s countywide property tax reappraisal, the assessor’s office put the value of the 15,000-squarefoot house at 10 Valley Crest Court at $2,639,800, up from a 2009 appraisal of $2,123,400.

In siding with the homeowner, Ayman Alshami, Villines cited a private appraisal commissioned by US Bank this year that put the value of the house at $2.1 million, $50,000 less than what Alshami paid for it last year.

Joe Thompson, chief administrator at the assessor’s office, said he disagrees with that appraisal.

“Sometimes appraisers make mistakes,” Thompson said. “We don’t feel like it was really representative of the value.”

The appeal is the first, and so far the only one stemming from the countywide reappraisal to make it to Pulaski County Circuit Court.

It’s usually the property owner who files the appeal, Thompson said. His staff couldn’t remember the last time the assessor’s office appealed to the circuit court.

Alshami said he was “shocked and surprised.”

“I feel like it’s a waste of their money and time and, of course, a waste of the time of me,” Alshami said.

The reappraisal, completed in July, initially found that about 95,000 of the county’s 173,000 taxable real-estate parcels had increased in value since the previous reappraisal was conducted in 2009, with the total value of real estate rising 12 percent.

Alshami was among the owners of about 6,500 realestate parcels who appealed their appraisals to the Board of Equalization.

In the case of Alshami’s house, the board sided with the assessor’s office, so Alshami appealed to Villines.

Alshami bought the house, built in 2005, from First Security Bank in March 2011. The bank had acquired the house through a foreclosure in 2008.

At a hearing before Villines on Nov. 6, Alshami presented a report of the private appraisal, completed in July, when Alshami refinanced the home.

The private appraisal, by Jack Cotton of Pinnacle Appraisal Services in Little Rock, cited the sales prices of three other west Little Rock houses that had sold during the past year.

The assessor’s office countered with its own examples of houses that had sold in the same subdivision as Alshami’s house. Two sales were from 2011 and one was from 2009.

In a Nov. 14 order, Villines sided with Alshami.

“This Court, having considered all of the testimony and evidence presented, determines that the land prices in the area are not stable enough at this time to indicate a twenty-five percent (25%) increase in value,” Villines wrote.

The assessor’s office filed the appeal Tuesday. It was assigned to Circuit Judge Jay Moody.

Thompson said it wouldn’t be fair to other property owners in the neighborhood to let Villines’ decision stand.

“Everything else on that part of the world is appraised one way, and we don’t feel it’s right for one person to be handled differently,” Thompson said.

Alshami said the assessor’s office appraisal would eventually increase his property taxes from about $27,500 to about $34,200. Under Amendment 79 to the state constitution, however, the taxable value of the house can increase only 5 percent per year.

He said he plans to fight the assessor’s office in court, although he didn’t yet know whether he would hire an attorney.

“I feel like I’m wanting to pay all the tax I have to, but I just want to pay on the value I paid for,” Alshami said.

Doug Smith, a Realtor who helped Alshami present his case to Villines, said he found it “amazing” that the assessor’s office appealed the case to circuit court.

He said he was surprised the assessor’s office questioned the private appraisal.

“I thought that would be a slam-dunk,” Smith said.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/12/2012

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