NEW LONDON — The Assessor’s office is completing the town-wide property revaluation in New London with the expectation of bringing assessments to 100 percent of fair market value, based on current market conditions.
The town is bound by the New Hampshire Constitution to “value anew” every five years, with the last revaluation taking place in 2014. We expect to send letters to all taxpayers with the new and old value for comparison purposes. It will not be unusual to see your assessment change by 10%-15% as our assessments were generally below market value.
In the letter there will be instructions on how to find the details about the new assessments including a report of the sales used to base values on, the old and new assessments included. As of this writing, we expect to mail the notices on Sept. 3rd and hold informal reviews Sept. 9th, 11th, 12th and 13th.
Phone appointments will be available for those who will be out of town or cannot attend in person. In any case, we ask that you review the data we post on-line before either scheduling an appointment or at a minimum before attending an informal review.
The information will be posted via a link on the front page of the town’s website: www.nl-nh.com, which will bring you to the “Revaluation Page,” reports and additional information will be available. The new property record cards will be there under the GIS Mapping link along with the new tax map parcel lines.
As far as the values are concerned there will be properties that go up, down or stay about the same. This is common in all revaluations, thus, the purpose for the revaluation. Where sales were minimal in certain classes or types of property, we looked back at sales that occurred after the last revaluation for more data points. As an Assessor, the more data you have the more reliable the assessments will be.
As most of you hopefully know we have completed a tax mapping project which lasted over 2 ½ years. Anyone who had an assessment change over $1,000 triggered by the tax mapping project was notified by mail in February with the opportunity to discuss those changes.
All pertinent information concerning the map updates was published on the town’s website prominently placed on the front page. We encourage you to review the information and reach out to us if you have any questions as to how it might have affected you. It is never too late for us to consider additional information, so if you have information on your property that is related to what is shown on the tax map, please share it with us.
As part of the tax map update, your map number changed as we expanded our numbering system to five segments from three. An index is published showing both the new and old numbers for you to cross reference. This does not require anyone to update or change their deed in any way. The new tax maps have been sent to the Registry of Deeds for recording and there is a set on-line and in the Town Office.
In addition to the tax mapping project and revaluation project, we converted our assessing software to a new system called Avitar. Avitar is a New Hampshire based software company with installs in some 150 communities in New Hampshire. What this means is the property record cards will look different but will still have all the pertinent information about your property. As always, our door is always open so feel free to ask if you have questions.
Equalized Ratio History
2018-91.6%
2017-94.3%
2016-94.8%
2015-95.2%
Equalized Ratio is the relationship between qualified/bonified sales and their assessment. It is displayed as a median average. As an example, an assessment of $180,000 divided by a sale price of $200,000 yields a ratio of 90 percent.
Kris and I make up the Tri-Town Assessing program which includes New London, Newbury and Sunapee. If you are not familiar with the assessment program here in New London,
I have been in New London as the Chief Assessor since September 2005. I have performed three previous revaluations here in that time. The other Assessor is Kristen McAllister who has been here for 12 years.
Combined, we have 56 years of experience performing assessing work and are certified at the highest level obtainable in the State of New Hampshire. Our Assessing Coordinator is Cary Lagace who has worked in assessing since 2005 is certified as a Property Assessor’s Assistant which requires both experience and coursework. Cary joined our team in November 2017.
We work for you the taxpayers and citizens of New London and we are always available to discuss your concerns. Our job is to administer the property tax in the fairest possible way.
We take our responsibilities very seriously and are totally invested in producing credible assessments. We hope for your continued support in the job we must do and please be patient during the informal review process as it can be a trying time for taxpayers and assessors alike. Please know that we will address all your concerns in as timely fashion as we can.
Normand G. Bernaiche CNHA
Chief Assessor, New London
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