Topic: COMMUNITY INTEREST
Questions asked of Property Assessors tonight at township meeting
RQ: Resident questioning Property assessors hired by township
THPAR: Township hired property assessors response
We as residents paid this company $1.6 million dollars to do this assessment. Residents of Hamilton definately need to question the data they were sent.
Residents Question: Did you inspect every home in the township? Would you say you did 50% all the properties?
Twp Hired Property Assessors Response: We went to the property and made measurements and visually inspected the outside of the home. But I do not know how many properties we actually physically assessed. If a resident had no trespassing signs or a gate that was locked, we did not measure the property.
RQ: I have a locked gate, so how did you measure my property? According to what you just said you would have left and not trespassed and did the measurements. Can I see the measurements you did and what information you have on my home?
THPAR: No, these are not a part of the public record so I cannot show you this information. I can tell you that you have a 4 bedroom home, we estimate 2.5 baths, a deck, and 8 rooms. We also default to stating on the report that you have a finished basement.
RQ: What? My basement is not finished.
THPAR: Sorry, I cannot share this with you. We can still make changes to the document at this time. If we did an estimate vs. what is real and it needs to be corrected, then the document would change.
RQ: Where you observant of the traffic and truck issues at front of my house? Was that taken into consideration with this assessment. Our homes are being destroyed and the township refuses to acknowledge what is happening. They never answer any of the residents for over a year now.
THPAR: They gave you an adjustment for the easement on your land and for the traffic.
RQ: An easement is an encumbrance upon a property. This means that the fee owner's interest is subject and subordinate to the easement beneficiary's interest. Thus, the property is encumbered with a burden to which the property owner (and all future owners) must submit.
No matter what type of easement or the terms, any property burdened by an easement will have a diminished value in comparison to the same property without that burden. Do you have what the adjustment is for the traffic.
THPAR: No, I do not.
RQ: Why not? How did you come to the assessed value if you cannot share with me these datapoints?
THPAR:I do not make the decision on the adjustments. The person who did the value on the property did this. The project Manager, Dan Gotti.
RQ: So when I called him why did he not share this with me? I am glad to see an adjustment was made due to the massive traffic. Our homes are getting destroyed. It is a 24 hour/ 365 day a year earthquake that is hitting our homes and the township refuses to do anything or even respond to our requests for assistance. I had a realtor come to my home and they said, "Whatever you want to ask for your home, take 20% off of it due to this noise pollution and the degradation from the trucks. I do not even know when I would show your home."
The Mayor, Planning and compliance, legal, and business administration within the township refuse to respond to any of us. We have replaced numerous windows, repaired cracks in our foundations and walls for the past 10 years.
There is a water cut out in front of my house that is leaking still, there is an ice skating rink in front of my home from it. The township approved nine more trucking companies to enter at the end of Whitehead road, increasing the truck traffic even more. There are gasoline trucks traveling in the residential areas.
When they did all the construction for American Metro Way there was supposed to be calming measures installed on the roads. None of these measures have been installed, yet the contractor, who contributed thousands of dollars to the Mayor's campaign was paid to install those calming measures. How did the township award certificate of occupancies for the condo's and American Metro office complex if the project was not completed? We have asked the Mayor this very question, she refuses to respond.
THPAR: This gives us another chance to review this assessment.
RQ: Sit on my porch you will witness first hand what goes on with the trucks. You will see how it shakes the entire home, how things are knocked off the walls. They said today there was some sonic boom people felt at their homes in NJ. That is how it is every day at my home. The township refuses to acknowledge this.
I would like to better understand how you came to this revised assessment. I need to know what % was used for these adjustments. What was the total value given to my home?
When I spoke to Dan he said that you only used the local sales of the homes to come to the assessed value. This contradicts what you are telling me.
THPAR: We went to the homes and did measurements.
RQ: Well this is not what I was told, I am glad there was more of an assessment. In the past the calculation was based on 70% FMV, it is not based on 100% FMV. This is was not shared by the township to the residents that this would be the case.
Their communication to us SUCKED
THPAR: Yes it did.
RQ: I asked the township to supply a certificate of insurance for your company to enter my home. They refused to supply that. If I have a contractor come to my home, no matter what it is, I asked for that. Why did they not supply that?
THPAR: They never asked us for it.
RQ: Why could they not have posted it on their website.
RQ: If I called Dan would he give me the adjustment information?
THPAR: I am not sure. I cannot guarantee he has this information.
RQ: Why not? If he is in charge of doing the calculation and making the adjustments he should have the information. By not sharing this information it makes me feel like you are hiding something.
THPAR: I am sorry I do not have this information.
RQ: Why did they not give you this information for these meetings?
THPAR: These meetings are for us to hear why you feel the number is not correct.
RQ: But if you cannot share with me how you got to the number and the adjustment values. How can I have a conversation with you on the assessed value.
THPAR: I am sorry I do not have this information.
RQ: Then what is the purpose of this meeting? This seems like a waste of time if you refuse to share how you came to the assessed value calculation.
THPAR: Sorry, I cannot share the specifics nor do I have how this was calculated. We will call you to set up an appointment to redo the assessment.
Residents need to be question these assessments. This group clearly has not clue what they are doing. The township has failed the residents once again.
