Some Riverbend homeowners might’ve thought there was a mistake, when they received their notice of assessment for the 2020 tax year and saw their new assessments were down substantially from 2016, the last time the assessor reassessed properties for the parish tax rolls.
Turns out there was an error.
In a letter to the subdivision’s more than 350 property owners, East Baton Rouge Parish Assessor Brian Wilson says incorrect data was entered into the system, which caused the fair market value of homes in the subdivision to be calculated incorrectly, too low as it were.
Wilson’s office is still trying to determine where, exactly, the glitch occurred. He says the office switched to new software this year but that the problem appears to have been caused by human error, somewhere during the data entry process.
“I don’t know if we put in a variable wrong or a specific number,” he says. “We’re still trying to figure it out. The important thing is we caught it and corrected it in time before the tax bills go out.”
About two dozen homeowners in another subdivision—Wilson couldn’t say which—also received incorrect reassessment notices due to the same entry data entry error. No other homeowners in the parish were affected.
The good news for those in Riverbend is that not only do they not have to worry that perhaps their property values have decreased—not that assessments are used in market comps—but their 2020 assessments will remain the same as in 2019.
“Because it was so late in the year, we didn’t have time to go back and reassess,” Wilson says. ‘We’ll have to revisit it at a later date.”
The Riverbend glitch comes as the assessor’s office is getting slammed with appeals of the new assessment levels, particularly from commercial property owners.
The Metro Council on Wednesday will take up appeals involving four commercial properties whose owners say their new assessments are too high.
Wilson has said his office is willing to reconsider some of the assessments, particularly in light of the COVID-19 crisis.
“We’re in talks with some of these folks,” he says. “They can initiate the appeals process but most of the time we get it settled before it goes too far.”
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