September 10, 2020
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Philadelphia property owners will not have their home values reassessed until 2022, with some exceptions. The Office of Property Assessment will take the time to catch up with delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment has opted to forgo a citywide reassessment of property values this year, citing operational concerns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Delaying the annual assessment means that most properties will remain unchanged from the previous tax year, with some exceptions.
Reassessments will be completed if a property had new construction, expiring abatements, renovations, subdivisions, consolidations or errors in prior year assessments.
The decision will not impact OPA's existing appeals process through the Board of Revision of Taxes, which every property owner has a right to pursue. Other tax relief assistance programs offered by the city also will not be affected by the delayed reassessment.
Mayor Jim Kenney said that delaying reassessments will enable OPA to complete staff training on the new Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal system that was launched in February. Other operations impacted by the pandemic also will now have an opportunity to be brought up to speed.
"It will allow operations that are currently delayed to catch up and will allow the OPA to ready the new CAMA system for a full reassessment next year — by which point I sincerely hope we will be past the effects of COVID-19," Kenney said. "We owe it to taxpayers to ensure we are making property assessments as accurate as possible, and this decision will help OPA accomplish that."
For the upcoming tax year, only property owners whose values change will receive notifications. Bills reflecting those assessments will be issued in December 2021, for taxes due in March of 2022.
The next citywide reassessment will not take place until 2022, to be reflected in 2023 tax bills.
