Board of Assessment Appeals

Overview

The Board of Assessment Appeals consists of three members elected to 6-year terms.

Responsibility

The Board of Assessment Appeals (BAA) is the body that hears and decides upon appeals related to assessment matters.

The BAA has three members who are elected to a six-year term. The BAA enables taxpayers to be heard by their peers at no expense. No fees are charged for the appeal process. Taxpayers do not have to be represented by counsel.

The Board of Assessment Appeals (BAA) is an official municipal agency. It is designed to serve as an appeal body for taxpayers who believe that town or city assessors erred in the valuation of their properties or erroneously denied them exemptions. It is important to note that the board is not an assessing agency. It does not value taxable property - that is the function of the assessors. It is a review body, and as such serves independently of assessors. The Board is the first level of appeal from the actions of the assessors. Its decisions are binding for one year and may be changed by the assessor on the subsequent Grand List when a reduction of increase was not equitably instituted. The BAA is an independent authority with no right of action binding, in each instance, for a period of more than one year. In most cases, it operates as an intermediary level between the assessors and the courts. The BAA has distinctive powers which they may exercise at their own discretion:

• Administer oaths in cases coming before them.
• Correct clerical omissions or mistakes in the assessment of taxes.
• Add to the assessment lists the names of people who own taxable property in the town but have been omitted from the lists.
• Increase the number, quantity or amount of property in any person's list.
• Reduce the list of any person appearing before the Board by decreasing the valuation, quantity or amount of any item.
• Make a supplemental list of any taxable property omitted by the assessors.
• Add 25 percent to the value of any additions or supplemental lists of personal property as a penalty.
• Elect not to conduct appeal hearing for any commercial, industrial, utility or apartment properties with assessment greater than $500,000.