South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Assessment process should be based on cost of living; fairest to all

Letters+to+the+editor

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:

I found Mr. Fred Hoehn’s Aug. 22 letter regarding this assessment process true and to the point.

The county reassessed my property over $74,000. Needless to say, no improvements or upgrades since 2007. My next step was to file for an appeal, gather everything needed, then await my appointment. I was optimistic with all my research I would have some success.

The first assessor was similar to what Fred described, very indifferent and challenging. He further said my comps were not accurate? I had a licensed realtor pull seven comparable market analyses, or CMAs, of like properties. The county comps were larger three or more bedrooms and  one or more baths, while mine is a two bedroom, one bath.

In addition, I also had estimates for repairs, additional comps, pictures. I spent multiple hours acquiring all the aforementioned. The end result was that I had to see another assessor up the chain when he readjusted from 38 percent down to 14 percent.

Why can’t this be more accurate? And fair? There truly has to be a better way. If they just had a cost of living adjustment to base these reassessments across the board, it might be a better way to go and would not cost the county all this expense to handle unfair assessments.

Please St. Louis County, be fair to us citizens and don’t bring hardships to us senior citizens.

Bob Mazzocchio
South County

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