Supervisors urged to use care in reassessments

The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors (MCBS) “request for proposal” (RFP) to hire a reassessment firm to reassess property in Middlesex brought concerns from the former chairman of the Middlesex County Economic Development Authority, Gordon White. The Deltaville resident cautioned the board to “pick the right firm to do the job.”

Middlesex County is partnering with Mathews and King & Queen (K&Q) counties to hire a reassessment firm to reassess the real estate in the three counties. The last reassessment was done four years ago in 2021. Essex, Middlesex, Mathews and K&Q, partnered for that one, but Essex has opted out.

At the MCBS board meeting on Tuesday, June 3, White said, “I am aware that commercial assessors in the past have claimed that they used comparable sales figures (to reassess county properties), but from my research in Middlesex reassessments over many years, they have failed to demonstrate that they actually did so.

“In fact, four years ago, the assessors used the Marshall Swift Residential Cost Handbook based upon California properties as their basic determination of value,” he said. “I should think it would be obvious that California real estate costs are about as far from Middlesex County, Virginia, values as it is possible to get.”

White noted that under Virginia code assessors must use fair market value based upon sales of comparable properties as the only acceptable means by which value is determined. “I hope that the board will see that whomever is chosen to do the reassessment provides a complete contract that specifies that they will use fair market prices based upon comparable local sales and actually does so…”