March 1, 2010

By Facsimile to (504) 826-3812

Letters to the Editor
3800 Howard Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70125

Dear Editor,

The story in the Sunday edition regarding assessments in Jefferson Parish reflected a gross lack of knowledge on your reporter’s part on the appraisal of property. I spoke at length to Mr. Waller explaining why his method of valuation and comparisons of assessments and sales prices was incorrect. He just didn’t get it.

Mass appraisal techniques used by assessors all over the world are an accepted method of property appraisal. Drive-by appraisals or front door appraisals, the method used by Mr. Waller, are not. In fact, such appraisals are bogus.

By law the 2008 reassessment was based on property values as of January 1, 2007. Property values for 2008 and later years were not used because state law prohibited such use. Yet Mr. Waller used those sales prices anyway and drew faulty conclusions from them.

Regarding the assessment of my home that value was obtained by me hiring a professional appraiser to value the property. He inspected my home, looked at comparable sales, and determined its value. Mr. Waller did not follow this method. For Mr. Waller to claim that my home is incorrectly assessed because he claims it is worth more today than it was nearly four ago is another example of his lack of understanding with which this article was written. If in fact my home is worth more today, that higher value will be reflected in the 2012 reassessment. By law it should not be reflected in the current assessment.

Overall the article concludes that the job I am doing as assessor is done well. My disappointment is that the article misleads readers. The analysis used is not an acceptable method of appraisal and should not be used to criticize any aspect of the job done by my office. Furthermore, the time frame for value determination is wrong by state law. Assessors should be accurate and fair and so should reporters.

                                                                              Sincerely,

                                                                               Lawrence E. Chehardy, CLA
                                                                               Assessor Jefferson Parish