Error in property tax assessments fixed

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The Marion County Assessor is fixing the property values of more than 6,000 homes.

The Marion County Assessor says it was a mathematical error that affected 52 neighborhoods and if not caught in time homeowners could have seen as much as a 20 percent increase in their home's assessment.

“It appeared that these neighborhoods did fall through the cracks,” explains the Marion County Assessor Joe O’Connor.

52 neighborhoods and 6,370 properties were assessed wrong. The Marion County Assessor says, just as fast as he found the problem he fixed it.

“It took about a week to identify and that's what we anticipated. The fix itself took around three business days. We anticipated it being a quick fix,” explains O’Connor.

While the assessor says the problem is fixed, he does admit homeowners should look closely as their assessment.

“We're not saying that all assessments are now perfect in Marion County by any means, we anticipate appeals. We just felt like this was a mathematical fix, it was easy to identify quickly to fix and we wanted to make sure we fixed it before we sent those notices out in error,” says O’Connor.

John Harkness lives in the Meridian/Kessler area, one of the affected neighborhoods. In 40 years, he's never appealed his property assessment, but this year he says could be different.

“Certainly we'll compare it to last year's bill and assessment and all that see if there's any difference up or down,” explains homeowner John Harkness. “If it was off 20 or 25 percent or something like that then certainly I would appeal.”

Appealing a property assessment seems easy, but Marion County is still handling appeals from 2008. The assessor says, his goal is to handle around 18,000 appeals a year. However, he wants a quicker turnaround for obvious errors.

“If there is a glaring problem I want it brought to light immediately and want it fixed as quickly as possible,” says O’Connor.

The property assessments are part of a general assessment that's done every few years. This assessment is for taxes due next year. Joe O'Connor says the assessments should be in the mail at the end of this month, or beginning of December.