The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors recently awarded a contract to Wampler-Eanes Appraisal Group Ltd. to conduct a reassessment of the value of properties in the county, and the reassessment will begin this summer.

“The firm is doing preliminary work now, but reassessment where people start visiting property will not start until August,” County Administrator Wade Bartlett said.

Farmville 701 District Supervisor and Board Chairman Jim Wilck and Bartlett explained the why and what of reassessments.

“All of the homes and properties in the county must be reassessed every six years,” Wilck said.

Bartlett said, “It’s almost like a census, except (you’re) not counting people; you’re counting the value of the property. Because in the state code, all property is supposed to be assessed at fair market value. Now, it’s not an appraisal because it’s what’s called a mass assessment. They don’t go inside a home. It’s all based on square footage and then what the values are in the particular area.”

The reassessment may or may not result in an adjustment of tax rates.

“If your property (value) goes up, then obviously we can charge more in taxes with the same rate,” Wilck said.

Bartlett said, “Just because a person’s assessment goes up doesn’t mean their taxes are going to go up, because also in the state code is if the results of an assessment overall for the whole county causes an increase of more than 1 percent in the amount of revenue that would be raised (via) the tax levies, then (a county has) to do one of two things. Either you have to reduce your levy to where it’s no more than 1 percent, or you have to advertise the rate as a tax increase.”

Addressing the timetable of when the results of the reassessment could affect the tax bills of Prince Edward property owners, Bartlett said, “These values would not be used until the tax bills that are due in December of 2021.”

The board’s decision to award the reassessment contract to Wampler-Eanes was made during a brief, special meeting May 21.

“We had a couple of different bids from a couple of different companies, and sometimes you don’t take the lowest bid if it’s a company that’s not very reasonable, but in this case, we did get the lowest bid,” Wilck said.

Bartlett noted there are only about five or six organizations that are licensed by the Virginia Department of Taxation to do assessments in the state.

“We got the whole list, and we contacted every single one of them, and some never responded,” he said. “… Then we got three bids, and Wampler-Eanes has been the one that we’ve had for a long time, and they have a lot of background with the county. They have a lot of experience doing universities, and that was important to us, and state park land and state wildlife management areas and forest.”

Bartlett said the initial proposal from Wampler-Eanes was a total of $239,442.50, which included a cost of $225,692.50 for reassessing 14,150 tax parcels plus an additional $13,750 to assess 1,375 mobile homes in the county.

Of Bartlett, Wilck said, “I think he was able to do a little negotiating on it and get it down.”

Bartlett said, “During the negotiations, Wampler-Eanes removed the cost for the mobile homes but will still do the work. Thus the total cost is $225,692.50 for 14,150 tax parcels.”

However, Bartlett emphasized that the actual number of tax parcels is always in a state of flux.

“The final actual cost to the county will be determined once the project is complete and the final number of tax parcels assessed is known,” he said.

The board voted unanimously, 7-0, to award Wampler-Eanes the contract. Farmville 801 District Supervisor Pattie Cooper-Jones was absent due to being on vacation at the time.