City Property Tax Valuations Lost in Limbo -- Residents Screwed

Are you a Denver residential property owner who appealed your property valuation back in June? Did you ever hear back from the city regarding your appeal? No? Apparently you are not alone. City employees say that not only did the Denver County Assessor's office fail to meet its mid-August deadline to let residents know if their appeal was upheld or denied, but city/county 311 lines are now being swamped by callers who still -- as of Sept. 9 -- haven't heard anything regarding their appeals.

A little tardiness on the Assessor's Office's behalf wouldn't really be that big of a deal, except that if you were denied, you only have until Sept. 15 to send in a secondary appeal. Keep in mind that a secondary appeal has to be hand walked or snail mailed into the Denver County Board of Equalization's office by Sept. 15. And, to make matters worse, if you didn't receive any correspondence from the Assessor's Office, how do you even know HOW to or WHAT prompted the denial. Don't bother calling the assessor's office. I did and all I was told is that I was denied. And that I only have a few days to take off work and hustle downtown and try to garner a copy of my denial, and then construct and hand-deliver (no time for snail mail at this point) an appeal to the Board of Equalization. How do I construct the appeal? On the phone the assessor's office wouldn't answer that question. Information that I requested regarding a secondary appeal said little more than what I have reported above. 

While an assessor's office employee swore that all the appeal notices were indeed mailed in mid-August, and she suggested the problem was with the post office. However, two separate 311 operators told us that in fact that notices went out late and were not received by many citizens, and that 311 phone lines were swamped by angry property owners. Try calling the Board of Equalization for information on constructing your appeal and you get a 25 minute wait and straight-on delivery to an answering machine. Super. Your tax dollars at work.

We would like to know when, exactly, the appeal determinations were mailed. We'd like to  how many property tax appeals were granted and/or denied. We feel strongly that the City and County of Denver is making it nearly impossible for property owners to appeal their valuations. And we are hoping that someone in Denver's mainstream media takes up the charge.