Meeting transcript
Board of Assessment Appeals - Appeals Hearing
March 1, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
06:31.
Okay, we're doing you're doing us in person and Georgia Conrad, who is the chairperson is on zoom from her home. And we're gonna do a pledge of allegiance
here to open the meeting. I don't like the way this is. Here we go. Are we ready? I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Okay, Janice. I will Just swear you in. Recite the o and swear you in. Can you hear me? Janice, can you hear me? Yes, I can.
No, come closer. Come closer. I can't. She's speaking up, but we asked her to move closer.
I only see the ceiling in the corner. Oh, it's probably a better view. How's that? Much better. Much better. Alright. Okay. Raise your right hand, please. Do you solemnly swear or do solemnly and sincerely affirm as the case may be that the evidence you shall give concerning this case shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, are under penalty of perjury. Yes, I do. Thank you. And as Alan has reminded us, if you lie to us, it's a perjury. I mean, it's a felony. It's a felony. So we know you won't anyway. Okay. You listed that there was a three bedroom, two bath, sixteen sixty eight square foot waterfront home for 290,750. I couldn't find it. I found a bunch of others that were much higher. Excuse me. I didn't even Here, I missed it. The address.
You see where it says you found a comparable for $2.90? Based on 2021 sales. That's your handwriting, right? Yes.
Me see which one. Georgette, I'm just showing her the document if That's she didn't bring your fine.
Now I have some comps that there's 119 Lake Side Drive that is two bedroom, two bath, thirteen eighty square feet, 0.47 acre. The appraisal, the assessment is 307790, the appraisal is $439,700. And this lot is very steep from the house is up by the road, but it's, like, two levels down to get to the water. Give me this to refer to. Thanks. I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna, plug that into my. Oh, that's the zone one.
Yeah. Well, I've got I've got a couple more here that, I I just still think that those are so extremely high. ZONE had posted several or gave access to several appraisals. Don't even know what their purpose was but they did have a breakdown and what they had said about, the 404 Lake Road is that their evaluation was 313,415. They said that the median in Andover was 179 per square foot. And they gave the range for the 404 Lake Road is $2.72 to $3.54. So I that's still what, the the one that Visions came up with was still way more.
Well, have to you have to understand that you cannot judge the land that way because that's not how they do it. But you can't just take the land. You cannot just you cannot just take the land out of your assessment because you can't sell the land. Your house is on it. Oh, I'm not. That was that was Right. So That was what they used to just total. I I let me show you. To try to break out the cost of the land from the whole thing. They can lower the cost of the land, but they'll just add the difference to your house. I can't hear you. I'm not sure why you're bringing that up. I wasn't referring to just Because people a lot of the people on lake are now saying, oh, well, you the land this and the land that. Well, unless you have a vacant lot. There was a vacant lot that sold not too far from me for 200,000, and then they had to clear it and bring in Phil and then build their house. She's not talking about the land. She's talking about the square footage of the home. I thought she said the land. No. You weren't talking about the land?
No.
I gave a She was telling you what the square footage was. Right. Yeah. Of the house. Of what zone is giving the square footage
median in Andover, Connecticut? The current square footage median, and it was at one seventy nine. Okay. But you have to understand that if you take the square footage of the entire town, you're gonna get a different figure when you're doing waterfront.
But I'm just saying that that's the median, and this is so far out of the ballpark. It's Well,
I said, if you look at 119 Lakeside Drive or 418 Lake Road or 127 Lakeside Drive, the thing is you have to show us that you're being unfairly taxed compared to other people. 1 Sunset Lane. I took all these comps and they are much higher than the
$2.90 How about, let me just bring up 19 Lakeview, which is on the lake. I'm not sure that didn't show on the pictures. Lakeview? 19 Lakeview? Yes and that's a comparable size. The lot is much bigger. It's like twice the size of the lot we're discussing at 404 and just I think my biggest concern is that I know that there was a huge jump in real estate over the summer and a lot of people were moving out of New York and willing to pay whatever, especially for lakefront because it's a novelty, but it's not sustaining itself. I mean, this particular home, 19 Lakeview, they started out asking, and again, it's a comparable. It's five rooms, two baths. What is the difference is it had a basement. The house on 404 Lake Road, I mean that was built in the 40s. That has, it was originally all crawl space and my dad had to dig out part of it to make it deep enough so they could fit a oil burner in there. It could never be converted into a finished base. So this is what you're talking about? Yes, is that '19? Yeah. Yeah, Yep. And they had started out in November at $3.74 9. Then it went down to $3.39 and they finally sold at $3.34.
$3.34 for three bedrooms two bath the square footage was nine ninety six square feet.
But the the acreage was like twice. Well the acreage
that's a different matter because is it a buildable lot? Is it wetlands? Is it, so we're just talking about what did its fair market value you're showing us that this property sold recently. Now the timeframe for us is, is into 10/21/2021, right? So this sold for $3.34 and it's $9.96. How many square feet do you have? It's 17. 17 inches. Seventeen twenty five. So, you've got, almost a little more than
one and a half times that, right? There's that is another thing that I wanted to ask. When they came out, because I met them at the house and and let them go walk around and and to verify everything. He told me that an unheated porch was now considered living space. Really? No. I didn't know. What do you know on that tour, Jen?
Because if you look at that Unheated porch is not considered living. Because one look at your tell you where it is. Let me look at this. Okay. It says porch enclosed finish. They don't they don't add that into living area. Only thing added into living area is the 1st Floor. Well, it's only one floor.
Seventeen twenty is what your living area is, whereas the floor area is thirty nine twelve. But you have a 104 feet of waterfront. Right? I'm not sure what the waterfront Well, that's what it says here. A 104 feet of waterfront. Do you know what 19 Lakeview has for waterfront? I do know. They don't list that in any of the. It just says if it is or if it isn't waterfront in The field card lists the waterfront. If you look under property, it's the code is f f. So that that does increase the property value. I
just Four feet of waterfrontage. Okay. It's at the bottom of your card on the front right right here which I think is a normal lot right let's see what side Yeah.
There were some changes were made after my dad passed because I had the bathroom didn't have a normal sized door opening and he had a wheelchair towards the end so I had to widen it and in order to widen it I had to take the closet from the bed so it's no longer considered a bedroom.
So she's got an appraised building value of $219,400 with an added, it must have a shed of some sort. Well, there's a 1,700
And then your land value is $2.53 6. And then your special in and so your total appraised parcel is $4.74 7. So what we need as a board to understand is it's it's fair market value compared to comparables, you know, not at nor abnormally high or abnormally low, but we take a mean, you know, average and it has to be comparable so water frontage to water frontage to water frontage if that's what we're comparing. Oh I understand but the problem is is there's limited waterfront and
because of a certain period of time which happened to fall you know and drove all the prices up for several months and now they're coming down but now because that's out of the period of what you're looking at, I mean that just does not seem fair. It really doesn't. Know this is a home that has been in my family for sixty years And I'm, you know, it's under the trust. I'm trying to maintain it for the family. I mean, it's, you know, it's not why they moved here to the end over to tell you the truth. Well,
for us, if you were to, if you came to us with a more significant, see there's ways to get property values, So if you had a mortgage or a loan, say a bank loan, that would be giving us a closer idea to what someone thought the property was worth. Well can I show you like another one that how about 196
Lake Road? 196. That's a comparables actually even a little bit more on the square footage listing they have 1872. Their lot is quite a significant amount bigger I don't know what the waterfront is but that one is a 0.67
acres. Okay do one to one give me the last one you did after the 19 Lake.
What was the second one you just talked about? Oh, 196 Lake Road. Lake 196. The first one I think was Lakeview. And I'm I'm I'm guessing that that's on the lake because it's an even number. Rd didn't feel comfortable driving by places. That's hold for 03:30 on January 18, right? This year?
Yes, it's more comparable. It's three bedrooms, two baths, $18.72 square feet. It's sold for 3 and $30,000
and they started out on 08/21 at 04:42 nine. If you look at the I I can get you the history of the, the, agents, posting. They went down towards the end of the month in '21 to 04/20/1949. Then they went to $3.99 9 in September.
So in 2018, you remodeled the home for $56,000 Correct. You replaced all the windows? Yes. And did a reroof? No, no reroof. Reroof was in 'eight? Yeah. Okay, that's where that came in. So you did the remodel in 'eighteen and the reroof in 'eight? Well
my dad had actually done that because he was alive. So he did a new roof in 'eighteen. So you've not added anything else to the structure no bathrooms no upgrades? Nope nope the only thing I did was the floors because the wrecks were ruined and so I pulled them up and put the pergo. Two bedrooms, two baths? Yes and that other room it's the one that we took the closet away from had been a bedroom before but because I don't know I guess they don't count it as a bedroom but there's not a built in closet. I didn't know that that's interesting. Are all the floors laminate flooring? Except for there's on the porch I put in slate for coming in from the lake that's the porch that doesn't have the heating but it is enclosed. There's actually a double porch because they had a pressure treated wood porch that was open and then it went into their
enclosed porch. I think we should go see it. Did you talk to Vision about this? Were out there and he He in the appeals process after you first got your
an appeal but when you first got what they raided your house at? Yes. Yes. Could you talk to him after that? Yes. He came out because he met me at the house so because I showed him the basement I said you know you can't I don't understand how you can really call it a basement because really I can barely stand in it. As I said it was because this was built in in the 40s and 1942
is it dirt floor pardon me is it dirt floor?
Part of it a large part of it is dirt floor but what had happened was the area because it wasn't even a year round home when my dad got it and he bought it so that as kids we could go out there for the summer and then they liked it so much They just sold their other house and converted this to a full time house. And in order to do that, to put a furnace in, they had to dig deeper in the dirt floor so that the furnace and water Did your family own this before the Gardenos? That is my family.
Oh, the Gardenos. Okay. Because I knew them and I was in the house when they owned it. Yep. Now it says here in April 2021, you changed to three bedrooms, two baths.
It says two bedrooms on here. Mine says three bedrooms.
That was the original. And then I had to get rid of the closet because of the opening into the widening of the opening into the bathroom. And that was for your father's convenience. Well,
that's how I discovered it. He could not get he couldn't even get his walker in there right so originally I didn't know what was going to happen it was all going through the estate planning right so I said well this has to be seen as we were doing the floors I said this has to be wider because it's not a normal width size and somebody you know it because of the limited amount of bedrooms that you weren't going get a huge family moving it would be probably you know a smaller family and possibly an elderly couple so that's why I thought it would be better to widen it, and it had to take that. So Georgia, your field card says three bedrooms.
It says April 2021 change CPT to laminate three bedrooms, two baths. In my card says two bedrooms.
I'll show you which one is the one that has January. Yeah, that little map I can show you which one the one that's right near the bathroom.
So this is looking at it from here. It says two bedrooms on the back,
but when you turn it over and you look at the roads that were included, it also includes Lot 444. So there's an extra lot. It's very level. The land is very level So to the there's no point three nine acres.
That can't be true. Yeah, that can't be true. What? Point three. She's telling us that she only has 0.39 acres acres and it doesn't qualify for two lots. Well, it says on here includes Lot 444.
Is a different location? Because at one point, my father owned the, the place where the barn is now. I I don't know what what Lot 444 is. You've got. We
would have to research that. I was just saying, I feel like I need more information. We're going need more information because Georgette's got a valid point if you have a double lot, full lot, but you're saying you don't. And I would like to see the condition of the house. So do you have any convenient, do you have any time? Sometime, yeah.
I mean, I can do it whenever I could do it tomorrow. No, I can't do it tomorrow. I can do it Thursday. Yeah, I can't do it during Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Georgette, I'm suggesting that we go over and look at this property and then also check with the assessor's office regarding this double lot and regarding the bedroom count.
I can When she when she writes in the comparable, puts three bedrooms, two baths. So
Well, that's what I was going by. There there's I mean, the layout never changed. It's just that the door was widened and the wall was moved a little bit. They opened up the wall to the bedroom, which got rid of the closet. And the minute you lost the closet, you lost the bedroom. Exactly. Okay.
That's fine. So that's probably I don't know why this note was on there, as far as I mean, you do realize that a week from today, I'll be undergoing surgery, so there's no way I can go and visit properties.
Well, Linda and I want to go look at it for That'll
be fine. And then we'll have to set a date for making a decision later. Yeah, we'll have to do that. That's fine with me. I mean, we'll be meeting Thursday and Saturday, and then we won't meet again until the twelfth after my surgery.
Yeah, we were still waiting to hear on the alternates. I haven't heard anything on all that.
Well, they're meeting. They're having a special meeting on Friday to decide whether they'll allow an alternate and which one it'll be.
So that's on Friday. Yeah. So I mean we could end up. We're going to have to set a meeting for all these extra ones, know, because the gentleman on Hebron Road, we have you heard back from the assessor regarding his review of the appraisals?
No, I haven't. He was out sick yesterday. Oh, okay. So he might be in on Thursday morning. I'm not sure. But if you wanna go visit the property. I do. I it sounds like I've been there. You know, I've been there and I've been in the house and I know what the property looks like. Unless something has changed drastically, I've got an idea of what it looks like. We
could do it before. I mean, it doesn't start till ten but
I know you don't like to do more. I don't really but I could go at 09:30 I guess. Is 09:30 Saturday morning work for you? No,
let me ask you something. Dan? The I it shows in the picture the garage in the front Mhmm. But it doesn't show the other side of the garage. Isn't there a stairway going up to the other side of the garage that used to be like an extra room in the attic of the garage?
Getting it confused with the house next door. You're getting it confused with the what's the Richard's original house. This is not Gardino? I'm pretty sure it was Gardino's that had the stairway on the backside of the garage. No. Because they didn't have that. There's a stairway that goes up and it's like a little attic, a storage area. Okay. But that was a stairway, right?
But that was added. That was when my dad had done over the original house. Right. And the, yeah. Is that stairway still there?
Yep, but it's it goes up to the window. You know what I could do is I could go Thursday and take pictures. Okay. So
Georgette, I'll go Thursday and meet her at the house and I'll take pictures to share with. Okay, that's fine. Does that work? Sure. That works fine. Okay. So Thursday, what time? I am available up until 4PM.
Alright. So let's do it, 9AM Thursday. I'll meet you at the house at 04:04. Yep. Okay.
And then I'll take some pictures and share them with Linda. And I'll load them onto the computer or shoot them over to her. And we're going to discuss this at a future meeting. Yeah, we'll discuss this at a future meeting. And I also want to check your bedroom count per the current card. I mean, card says two and there's some confusion there. Is it two or three? That might have been like when he did the remodeling
and I don't know if they came out to do an inspection he pointed out that there was no longer the closet. So I don't know if some cards have changed and You some know, it's possible, possibly because it says April 2021 change
CPT laminate three bedrooms to two. That's what it says. They changed it from three to two in April '21. Is that it?
Yep. See the property here there's the Acreage 0.39 I don't know what that is the second listing. So she that's frontage CVFS.
Oh okay so there's not a second block though is that correct?
Georgette she's pointing out to me on the very bottom of the front of the card landline valuation section. So she's pointing out it's 0.39 acres. Right. And then it has frontage of 104
feet. That's 104 feet on the water. Correct. And you can have that because these lots are not, they're not deep.
No, no, but she's telling me that because it's listing that she doesn't see a second lot that you're talking about. I didn't say that. I don't know. It said includes Lot 444,
but I don't know what lot hers is. It doesn't list it here. It says 40, oh, wait a minute, map 4447443. So evidently it overlaps into 444. Some people bought pieces of the lot next to them, not necessarily a whole lot. Other rivers sell piece of the land. So that could be what it was, but Well, I'll just double check. I'll see Roberta.
Can I can see Roberta on Thursday after I check the house? Right. But a 104 foot frontage is pretty darn good.
That's a lot of frontage for that. I have 75 feet. Well, I have 46 because of some And Linda has none. Linda
has none, right. Oh, the people next to me have, let's see, 85 because they bought a piece, they bought an extra lot and then they sold 15 feet of it to one of their kids to add to the 50. So, you know, they they move around a little bit. There around the whole the But anyway, it'll be good if you go there and you look and see what's going on. Thank you. Yep. Definitely do that. Okay. What was the what was your last assessment?
Last assessment according to her page was 332290. Now, Jan,
you did not get the mail. You did not get the notification by mail. I did not. I had no says you do not have a mailbox. I have a PO box.
Well, you didn't list it. Oh, I see. PO box. That was my mistake. I should have put PO okay. Then I will notify you actually by by email because it'll be too short to send in the mail. Are you in the last?
There is. One car, two car? One car. One car garage. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
It's sort of like in the front of the house towards the roadside. Seven rooms total.
I don't know they listed it as seven but there's that unheated room so I don't know how that's listed don't know. Is that the one that's like glassed in? Yes.
And that's unheated? It is unheated. So Georgette, if it's an unheated enclosed porch, it's not part of living. Well, isn't. They don't count it as part of living. I know, but she's telling me that when they do the total room count, they're counting it.
That's how I asked it. If you look on the card,
I am, I'm looking at it. The field card? Yeah, construction detail, total rooms, seven rooms.
No, but I'm talking about if you look on the building summary section, 1st Floor, 1720, else is Crawl space, porch enclosed finished, garage, porch open finished, attic basement, none of that it's in the floor area but it's not in the living area and that's right.
Yeah yeah I understand your point I do but I'm just saying her point is if you count the and I'll do this Thursday if you count the rooms, there's only six rooms unless you count the unheated porch, then that makes seven. That's so she's calling into question the listing of seven rooms in the construction detail column. Okay. Let me look at that. It
says seven rooms. Okay. The living room and there's a, it was my mom's plant room sunroom that does have heat. Oh okay. So that's five and then the six is the room that used to be the third bedroom but okay is now
something short right the den whatever. Yes exactly. Okay. And then other than those. I'll check that. I'll do that count. I'm gonna make a note to do that count also.
I'm told the number of rooms doesn't really affect how they compare it because rooms can be different sizes, but that, you know, that's another matter.
Okay, that's what I'm doing. No, Georgia. You have more questions. No, I'm good. So
you understand where we are now so I'm going to come and see you on Thursday. I'll take some pictures. We'll do some walk around. I'll then come back here, check with the assessor's office regarding your land and any discrepancies on what you have there. Seven rooms. Right. And the seven rooms. And then, we'll be in touch with you we'll give you another date to come back in and we'll give you a decision.
Okay. All right. The only thing I wanted to mention because of all this the lots my dad did have the up further on Lake Road it's on Lake Road but it's not waterfront and it he owned he had purchased it from the Wynn homes way way back it was like the 55 acres in the woods okay and that's where he built the barn for my son. And I know that there was some issues with property lines there that they found out that the Andover property lines that they had were shifted over. So they tried to resolve it among the neighbors. He went they went and were going to you know he was going to buy the the one that was in dispute and then leave the other line where it was and they had gone through the lawyers and it had gone to the finalization and then the other house backed out at the last minute for some reason. Okay but that's not part of your current house That's not for before.
Okay that's fine.
We'll look into That might be it. I don't know if it originally was listed on the We'll do a little research and we'll get some answers and then we'll reach back out to you. Okay, good. I just wanted to let you know that that originally was
under his name. Janice we appreciate you coming in with your concern. Thank
you and I appreciate your rescheduling everything and giving me the opportunity just clarify a few No problem. Okay thank you. Oops, I gotta give you this back. Thank you. Okay.
Is the next person in there? Chris Barnard. Glad to be here. The gentleman is here. Okay. Real quick, I'll introduce my name is Alan Roy. Good evening. Nice to meet you. This is Linda Armstrong. Nice to meet you. This is Georgette Conrad. Hi Georgette. She's the chairperson. Hello. And she's going to swear you in because it's a felony to lie to us. So she's going to make you raise your right hand. All right.
Raise your right hand. And do you solemnly swear or do solemnly and sincerely affirm as the case may be that the evidence you shall give concerning this case shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, or upon penalty of perjury. Do you say I do? I said I do. Loud and clear. Okay.
So you have half an hour, you can tell us whatever you want. It's so sweet.
It won't even take that long, I think. So yeah, I mean, my concern was just the evaluation that came in at the house. I purchased the house in 2019 in July, and I spent 3, I think it's $3.95 5 for it. And the appraisal at that point in time came in at $4.00 4. I then refinanced the house in 2020, and actually I brought that with me because I actually finally tracked it down for you all. And in August, let's see what was the date here, 08/03/2020, the appraiser said it was then $405,000 And so for the house to have increased by about $200,000 according to the appraisers in one year, well, that would be phenomenal. I mean, I'd love if I could get $200,000 extra out of house, but I don't see that happening. So I just think for some reason they went a little overboard.
So Georgette, I'm going to read this to you and I can kind of stick it out in front of the camera here. This is from Platt Associates. It's an appraisal report dated 08/10/2020. It's for a mortgage company. Is that the Zillow thing?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is USRES Inc. Better Mortgage Inc. Out of New York, New York. And it says in accordance with your request, we have appraised the real property at 58 Merritt Valley Road, Andover, Connecticut. The purpose of the appraisal is to develop an opinion of the market value of the subject property as improved. The property rights appraised are fee simple interested in the site and improvements. In our opinion, the market value of this property as of 08/03/2020 is $405,000 So the attached report contains description analysis, supportive data for the conclusions, final opinion of value, descriptive photographs, limiting conditions and appropriate certifications. And this is respectfully submitted Katherine Hebert, residential appraiser 1523, but I don't know if that's for New York or Connecticut.
Believe it's Connecticut. I'm more than happy to send you the whole report, please. Know we're just trying to have the first week of that. Absolutely. Than happy to. Yeah. So I'm
going to pontificate a little bit or kind of expand. Linda and I are somewhat new to this whole program as community members. We decided to get involved. Georgette's more knowledgeable and having said that we're in a learning curve, but we've been talking about appraisal reports. Now there are several ways to appraise. You can get insurance and your insurance company will appraise. You can get a mortgage, mortgage company will appraise, but each of one has a vested interest in that appraisal. So they're not considered, they're considered of value, but they're not considered definitively independent because they're connected to someone with an interest. So having said that, we know of a case that came forward in Andover and concerned a certified Connecticut local appraiser using comparables that were justified. They were at the right time period and they were two bedroom to two bedroom, you know, four to four, you know, And so looking at what you've given us, it's from a mortgage company. We can use it to help us make a decision,
it's not, it's not an appraisal report that's independent. And so we're limited in how we can approach it. But the rest of the report would be,
would be good. Yep, absolutely. I'd more than happy to send it to you. Where do want me to send it to?
You can just bring it to the town hall. Carol Lee is the town clerk and she can take the report and disseminate it to us. Can email it to her. Yep. I've got electronics. Yeah. So, yeah. And she's just a town clerk kind of an Andover email. I mean, it's, it's listed in the website. You already
have it, right? Sounds like you already have it. Yeah, I'm a member of the Board of Ed. I might have Yeah, it
so that's fine. That would be extremely helpful. Yep, absolutely. So again, as you heard the last person, we're going to have to postpone you for a decision and in all likelihood we're probably going to come over and look at the property. I know what works for
you. My spouse is home pretty much any point in time. Okay. Are there any biting dogs on the property? There's one dog. She's a golden duel. She's about 12 years old. So I don't think she might, she might get excited when you get there and say hello, but Well, since I've already got one scheduled on Thursday at nine, I could probably do Thursday at ten right after. Let me check with her and make sure that she has her meetings being perspective. What I'll do is I will, I'll give you this back so we get the whole report and I'll put my name and my cell phone
on top so you can reach out to me and say yeah that would be a good time and date. Thank you for doing that.
Do you you two have the Zillow report that he attached? Yes. Well, wait a minute. Winner does. I do. You do. Okay. Because it does it says a mini estate. As you drive on the property, you'll be impressed by the expansive techno block paver driveway. What's the name of the The woman the people that owned this house before, she was on the board of assessment appeal with me when I first came on and they moved to Florida and he collected antique cars. They had a pretty big garage and stuff. That might have something to do with the increase in price.
Well, it says it's stated to be the oldest home in Andover, but last, it is seventeen
forty? '17 13. Wow. I have the planks. It looks great. They were nice to live in there.
It's in pretty good shape. It's in very good shape. So
yes, we were very excited to find it. Sorry, your son didn't get it. My godson. Oh, your godson. So yeah, and don't get me wrong, I fully expect that it should go up some. Just 50% seems a little excessive for one year. But if you do, anybody who wants to buy it for $600,000 you send them my way.
Well, see that's the problem is the virus pushed people out of New York and they were paying $10,000 a month for a townhouse in downtown So New for them, $4,000 mortgage was a godsend, you know, so that's why these properties went crazy. Oh yeah, oh yeah, Yeah. So we had a meeting with the town assessor at the start of our season, residential real estate. And he said it went anywhere, basically housing from approximately 13% to 70%, depending on what it was. So the 50 number is not shocking. My house went up 56%. You know, we want to miss Linda though. No, my house is not nice.
All right, so Georgette, do you have any other questions?
No, not really. Don't. It's, no, that's that's fine. Probably going to see it. If I wasn't disabled, I would be doing that, but I can't. Right now I'm having trouble even walking.
Okay. So we're going to excuse this gentleman and we'll send him a letter giving him a follow-up appointment. Okay. Are you,
you don't know when you're going to visit? Yeah, we're working that out now. I gave him a suggestion for Thursday at ten and he wants to double check with his wife first so I gave him my phone number so he will call me. And what we then plan to do is have him give that report in entirety to Carol Lee to submit to us. Okay
that's good. We just have to remember that. Yeah I'm writing it down. Everything done by the end of March.
Right right by March 31 all our decisions have been Exactly yep. All right. Any questions for us? Nope. Appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. Thank Take care. Bye. Take that was pro and birth chart. Maria von Trapp? She makes very good points though. About Zillow.
Well I could tell you Zillow reflects some strange things. So discrepancies on Zillow reporting can be hundreds of thousands different. That's always high. It's never low. Yeah. Yeah, It would be interesting and certainly we can consider his report with the visits and with, you know, physically seeing it.
You know, did drive by it today. So, at least I know where that one was. Think it's the only one.
Because I see where they've got just the dwelling of the outbuildings at 4493. It's quite an impressive property.
Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then it's got one residential outbuilding 31,000. And then the commercial building apparently is 71,200. So, mean, those numbers are pretty significant. That's a previous assessment was 423. So he went up
50%. Yeah. Yeah. Is this sustainable though? You know, I mean, these houses, all these high,
it's sustainable as long as the New York people have that money and they want to spend it here. I'm wondering if from five years this is Oh no, it'll be for the market, you know. So these assessments are going to stay for the next five years. Five years. Okay. Well, they can, someone can challenge it again next year, you know they can come in again. Well they can challenge yeah they can challenge any year. It has to be comparable
to the time frame that the price was set, that's the problem.
Well the New Yorkers New Yorkers started buying in town a long time ago because a little tiny house on my street sold for almost $1,000,000, which was about half the size of what most houses are around here and it was New York that bought it. Right, I'm gonna move this just a hair. And then a guy from New Jersey who's a lawyer bought a house, or bought a house, I should say, on Lake Road and those drove the prices up. So that's been going on for a while. It's not just brand new.
All right. Do we have, is Maria Trapp on the line?
She's due till seven I don't see her. Or how about Vince Grimaldi? Maria Trapp and Vince Grimaldi are the next two. All right.
Neither one of them. Yeah, but it's kinda early. We also have Pamela Hadham. Hadham, yeah, Pam Hadham. She's here already.
She is here. We can do her. Let's do her. Okay.
Hi Pam. Pamela, can you turn on your phone, your microphone? You're muted, Pam. You're muted.
Unmute yourself. You'll find a little place to click on the mute button so you can hear it. Can you hear me? There we go. Turn it up. The volume. It's up. You both representing? Are you a mister and missus?
Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. Hear you. Oh, you can. Okay. Are you a mister and missus?
Yes. We are. Yep. So you're presenting together? Yes. Yep. Okay.
So I'm gonna let Georgette is the chairperson on the screen in the red sweater, which is quite pretty.
And my name is Alan Roy. Pam knows me from way back.
And this is Linda Armstrong over here. Uh-huh. So understanding that what we're gonna do now is it's a felony to lie to us. And so you're gonna be sworn in under oath and the chairperson Georgette is gonna have you raise your right hands, both of you.
Swear Okay. Your Okay. Do you solemnly swear or do solemnly and sincerely affirm as the case may be that the evidence you shall give concerning this case shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help you God or upon penalty of perjury. I do. I do. Okay. Thank you.
So you have, you have the floor. You need to present to us. You know, what you're saying is the conditions of your property and its value and why as peers in the community we should lower it.
Okay, we're mainly we're talking about our our property outside our our grounds are what do we got here. So we have a since we built the house we've never had a. We have not put a driveway in yet. We have a totally unfinished landscaping around the total of around the complete property of the house, which is 1.7 acres. We are lakefront, but we're not we have really don't have access to the lake because of the wetlands. And it's our backyard is 70% wetlands, which really is swamp lands. We're on the we're on the, you know, the pond end here, where it's Yep. Yeah, it's about, you know, two feet amok in there. But, so we're not allowed to do anything to put in put a seawall in. We're not allowed to do any filling,
we're not allowed to bring any machinery in to make our yard like our neighbors who have beautiful lawns all the way to the lake, they can walk down to the lake, they can enjoy the property. So we feel we're more at lake view than lakefront. And so,
I mean Well, becomes a technicality in terms of the assessor is showing you have 200 feet of frontage on the water. Right. But we can't But you're saying that you don't access it
We because can't it's access that because it's wetlands. We have about 20 feet of grass that's very, wet, and from there, the weeds have grown in the water. Yep. And we're not allowed to touch any of that. Eutrophication is what it is. What's that, ma'am? It's called eutrophication.
It's because it's shallow there and the weeds will grow because the sun can hit the bottom and then the weeds die and they make it more shallow and the next year it's more shallow and more shallow. Well, the yeah. The lake association had considered mucking out, but it was too expensive. That was years and years ago. That was a number of years ago. I've been involved in this for many, many years. I've been on this lake for forty something years. Right. But you have you had a rental house on that property originally. No,
we never had a rental house. I've owned this house. Know. When I was 23 years old, I I rented this house. There was a small house on there that I know somebody rented it. We tore it down. I own that. We tore it down and you built this And we built this Was it shallow then? Yes. It was always that. Okay.
I'm just checking because some areas We're on the muck end of the of this roof. Right. Some areas of the lake are very much You cannot walk out and go swimming. You'll sink in two feet up to your knees. I realize that. And there's a there's a big area, especially in the coves that that is. And Yeah. And people are on the same roof. I mean, with the landscaping unfinished This was Oh, this is
And we're talking, know, in the 100,000 plus dollar range here to do anything with our landscaping, our driveway, our landscaping, none of this is finished. Mhmm. I see it up here.
So I mean, we're we're trying to assessment is 670% is $6.72. So they're saying the house is worth close to 1,000,000. Correct? $9.09 $6,709.67. Yeah. Right.
I feel They're saying that the building, just your new home, is $5.95. Right.
Then they say there's an outbuilding. You must have a shed. No. The 3,300. We have no shed. Shed. There's no other property, buildings on this property.
Yeah, because it says outbuilding. Why does it have, I
don't know why. There's no outbuildings. We have a garage connected to the house that's underneath. Our basement isn't finished. Our decks underneath aren't finished. We have to walk out either through down the basement or around the front yard to get to the backyard. We don't even have steps off our deck to go down to the lake to the back. Let me,
just we have a report that was sent to you by Vision Government Solutions. And John Choponis, the assessor in the town of Andover, sent it out. Apparently you did a review with Vision and it said assessment before hearing was $7.25, $6.20. Yeah. And then assessment after review was $6.72, $4.90. Yes.
So they came so that was higher than what you're coming in with now. Right. 50,000. 50,000. That sounds. So our old assessment was $5.16.
500. Right. I see that on the card that the previous was $5.16.
So I just don't see us getting anywhere near that million dollars 9.
Not not without all the landscaping being done and right
and the problem is is I don't think we we've tried once excuse me. We've tried once before to get that done to do anything and there's we're just not allowed to do it because of the, you know, the wetlands and the zoning regulations and the zoning board or the wetlands commission.
They're not we're not allowed to. What did you try to get done?
We tried to bring in fill in the back to clear it to make a nice one like our neighbors right to the water.
Oh, no, you can't do anything on the waterfront. Absolutely.
Yeah. So I mean, we you know, you're saying we have 200 something feet of frontage, but we don't have access to that. That's state
regulation. Do you have any reports to support what? So you can give us an opinion on value, but we we need something more formidable, you know, that we can hold. So do you have any reports of any type from a mortgage company, an insurance company? So can at least get an idea. Well, we don't have it. No. No, we don't. So you said that that's that's problematic.
Mean, we don't have a we don't we don't have a mortgage on our house. Okay. That and that's fine. Paid it off. We paid it we had a $400,000 mortgage to build the house. We paid it off.
Okay. And that's good. How about your insurance company to insure the home? Did they do an evaluation of your property? Yes. 775. It was $7.75? Yeah.
You is that do you know the date on that when it was done?
We just we just did that. We just got that renewed in January. Is there any chance you can you can get us a copy of that? Certainly. Yeah.
Well, July does not include the land because nothing would happen if your house burned down, the land would still be there. They're just walking the house.
But at least it supports building value. Yeah. If they think it's worth $7.75, that gives us a starting point. Yep. Well, replacement costs, that's what they're saying. Exactly. Yep. Yeah.
If you could get us a copy of that just to help establish value from a professional reporting standpoint, because, you know, opinions, we could give opinions, you could give, but whatever, you know, so that would be of great help.
Where would I drop? Where would I bring that? Town Hall, Carol Lee. Carol Lee. Yeah. Alright. She can send it to us. Right. And she'll distribute it out to us. I'll drop that off.
Okay. You agree with another another post call? Georgette, I see this as Well, if you know anybody that wants to pay $9.70
something, I'd be willing to give you, you know, a really nice commission. A hell of a good deal? I'd be I'd be I'd be willing to give you, you know, a 10% commission.
Don't say that. Yeah. So what we're gonna have to do is wait for that report to come in. I'm gonna stop by the house in are you guys home during the day?
I am mostly. I'm not. I work every day, but my wife is
home. All right, I'm gonna do a review, right now we got a review at nine and a review at ten on All Lake right. So if I came around eleven If o'clock came
and looked at the property you could understand it better. I think a big big deal. You know, we have a beautiful home. I'm not saying we don't, you know, and it's a big house. It's 3,850 square feet. But
And it's just for you? Right. Yes. That's it. Yeah. Just me and I got couple of kids. Do you want to adopt them? I'm
He's doing by the doing okay. Zach's doing really good. He's married. He has a daughter. So your grandparents. Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah. So Pam, can I come by Thursday at 11:00?
Actually Thursday is a bad day for me. I have a couple of appointments. Okay, not a problem. How about Friday?
It's a doctor's appointment, so I don't really want to cancel it.
No. No. No. You don't have to. How about Friday? Anytime on Friday? Yeah. Friday. Yeah. I'm home. What time? Anytime.
If you wanna come early, I can wait for you too if you want. What time? Nine would nine be too early? No. Nine's fine. Alright. And I I can I can be here too if you want? If you he's got two appointments on Thursday.
On Thursday, I have one at nine and one at 10:10 at ten. Wait that long. Yeah. So Friday Friday would be good at 9AM. All right great. All right. All
I will see you Friday nine a. M. All right thank you so much appreciate it. Thank
you everyone thank you. Thank you. Mr. Haddam what was oops, sorry to interrupt. Mr. Hadam, what was your first name? Edward. Edward, thank you. All right, you're welcome. I'm doing the meeting minutes. Oh, Okay.
Alan, I don't see on the card where it says anything about an outbuilding. Don't know. Trap, Bon Trick? I like Bon Trick. You sing? I'm sure we're not the only people who said that. Joy, Joy. Alright. Thank you so much. Welcome. Hey. So
Amanda, this this is a husband, wife, Maria and Rob. Bob. You like Bob? Bob. So I'm going to turn I'm going to turn around and what I'm going do is I'm going to introduce her. This is Linda Armstrong. I'm Alan Roy and the young lady in the red sweater is Georgette Conrad she's the chairperson so because it's a felony to lie to us in this proceeding she has to take an oath from both of you that what you're going to tell us you're getting closer we won't tell you. Yeah yeah sit in front here so she the camera can see you better What is this? What are guys We just got the masks off today.
Georgette, can you see them? I can. Hi Georgette. So she's gonna have you raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear or do solemnly and sincerely affirm as the case may be that the evidence you shall give concerning this case shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, or upon penalty of perjury.
I don't know if I heard him. I do. Okay. That's better. I'm retired.
I talked to the assessor's office about this, and it says Never Ending Solutions LLC.
Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I said correct. I don't know if you heard me. And the $3,200
would be assessed for your telephone, your computer, your desk, your chair. If you have a website, you would certainly need a computer. To get an LLC, you'd need a phone. So these are property valuations for your business. Even if you haven't started the business, once you take out the LLC, you'll start being assessed for the equipment it needs to make the business. Is that I spoke to said that Take into consideration I can't hear you.
Little closer. I didn't even talk loud enough. Sit right there. Right there. Lady I spoke to said that that's exactly what would take place. But all I did last year, because I lost my job, I decided to try to open something up for eventually to do a little something to bring in a little money. But we just started with the process. We took out, we did the name, we did the tax ID number and everything. We haven't even gotten as far as doing anything. I don't have a copier, I don't have a printer. I haven't done anything as far as soliciting that we have a business of any kind. So we just took the first two steps, name of the business and the tax ID number. Well,
the thing is the way the system works, once you get an LLC, the assumption is you have a phone and you have a computer.
I agree what you're saying. You're saying assumption, and I'm letting you know that we haven't done any of that yet. We don't have a returned back to work. So as of right now, we might not even continue. He might even decide to, well, dissolve, dissolve,
have you turn to work. They call cancel your LLC in order to not have to pay these because they you if you have an LLC, you must have a computer and a phone.
Why do you have to have a computer and a phone? People still do businesses without a computer and a phone and a copier and a copier. $3,200 is a copier like I have at work. It's a $2,000 copier. New York. She from New York. No. I'm having a hard time with the $3,200 A $3,200
is for a big copy machine. You could buy a $50 copy machine, which I don't have yet. And like I said, we haven't put anything on the internet. We haven't, you know, done anything, nothing because I returned to work. My house. So the phone you would have anyway, whether it was It was been my phone. Correct. I didn't go out and get anything yet.
And we have our house computer, you know, but we didn't buy it to do an LLC. Right. We
were in the process of doing it until I was asked to return back to work. And you would have come down to the town hall and declared the property had you And gotten the reason I didn't do it was because we have nothing. I was under the assumption because we didn't have anything. You don't have to declare it. That I didn't have to declare it. And that's what the lady explained to me. She said, you should have just filled it out anyways. I said, I didn't know. Oh, so you didn't fill out the form. I didn't fill out the form because I didn't have anything and that's why we ended up getting this.
So George, Georgette, can I ask you a question please? Sure. Is there a requirement that if someone establishes an LLC address in Andover, they're required to come to the town hall and fill out the assessors form? Yes.
You get the personal property form that you have to fill out every year. And if you don't do that, you end up paying penalties. So So even if they bought nothing, they're still required to say we bought nothing? Well, in order to open the LLC, you probably needed either a phone or a computer or both.
Well, they could use their cell phone she's holding in her hand. They,
you know Well, awesome. But but once again, we didn't get that far. I mean, I understand what you're saying to open it and to do the business, you will need all that. I go online And look right for you, will you win here? I don't think so. You don't think so. Unless just by the state, just by the state. Well, me, let me look. I'm
going to look. I'm curious to see what happens when I query
your company. Unless the state puts because of the tax number. And what's it called? New solutions? Never Ending Solutions. I like the name.
A little bit of everything like gardening, you know, little bit of, you know, shrubs. Is
it all one name, never ending or two? Two. Two. Never.
We still got ideas. We're hoping it'll come through, but like every day or something in the world worse happens, so you don't know. And over.
See, there's a standard value that they put when you open an LLC.
That's what she explained to me. Never Ending Solutions LLC popped
up in your opened as a corporate office. Company number 100 Wheeling Road, Andover, 600232 is a business that is registered. It has your business ID number.
You have to have an address in order to get it from the state of Connecticut. Right, right, right, right.
It's not showing me any other information other than the fact that you opened the business. That was to get the tax ID? Yeah, you got
it. So we started, you know, tried to do things right. We started, but once again, like I said, once I returned back to work,
that was it. And I did not realize that that form had to be returned because we did nothing with it. Is there a minimum that we have to have? Georgette, is there a required minimum is what you're telling us? I'm not sure. They put a value on the phone. They put a value on the computer. They put a value on a desk and chair because they assume if you're, you know, making getting online. I talked to her and she said no.
If you don't get a personal property form to fill out, you didn't get one or did you get one and then just ignore it because you didn't start your business?
As we didn't get anything and we didn't start it, I didn't fill it out and return it. Then that's when the lady on the clerk's office said to me you should have returned it and put on it. Roberta.
Roberta. She is the assistant assessor. So Oh no, it wasn't her that I spoke to. Can she fill out the form now and get it changed or does it have to be? She'd still have a penalty. Alright. Yeah, cannot be changed because if you don't do it, you pay the penalty. We can change
the assessment number, but the penalty is established for not filling out the form. What's the penalty? 25% of value, whatever we set the value in.
So what does it work out to? I mean, how do you Well, we
are going to have a discussion on that. Georgette, are you happy seeing that it's listed at this number?
Well, I, you know, I see, I've been through a lot of these and everybody objects to it.
We saw the girl with the marijuana farm last year, remember? We dropped it significantly.
You know, I think we ended up going down like 800. But she had pots and all this other stuff, you know, to grow the stuff in.
How's the money figured out? What's the percentage of the valuation for the tax? When she said it was $3,200
on the tax, the $110 would pay would be, I don't know, dollars 100 or something. That's the assessment, but it'll depend on on the mill rate, which the mill rate always drops when all the values go up. Mill rate hasn't been set yet. We'll probably set until No, the mill rate won't be set until the Board of Finance comes up with a budget and they vote on the budget.
You need to Oh, I gotcha. All the Yeah. Right now it's like $32 per thousand.
They are expecting a mill rate drop of probably three mills. So it will go down, but it's hard to assess.
Like I said to the young lady when I came in here to talk to her, I said to her, I said, how did you come up with 3,200? A copy machine. You can buy a copy machine for $50, which I don't count. The copy machine she assessed and a desk and everything is a copy machine that costs $2,000. That's for a big business. It's not something you would buy for your house just to make a couple of copies. I mean, there's a big difference in all those dollar amounts.
Once this is settled, right, you still have to fill out another form this year? So every year, no matter what, you have to Every year, you have to. We have to for an old gym Do the business. Garage that hasn't been registered or run for years. We just have fill it every year.
You know, for a first time person doing this, I mean, should be some kind of mercy here. Mean, I lost my job. I ended up getting called back, you know, after six months. You're going to lose your husband if you keep that. Then they almost fired me the vaccine. Then they almost fired me because of the vaccine. I just got word again last week that I don't actually yesterday
that I get to keep my job again. Can tell me what you think, Linda? Certainly you can
don't have any numbers to give you. I know but Linda's making a suggestion so I'll let her speak to you go ahead. About if we reduce the estimate of the property being appealed to 500? That's not really There really is nothing but Well there's a phone and a computer we know that. But they had that anyway before the business. That's not how it works. Once you open an LLC, those things are used for your business.
But you do realize this is my first time actually doing something like this. I mean, you should have a little kind of like, okay, I screwed up and I'm willing we're willing to make it right, You know, the next time around, but I mean, I think there should be a little bit latitude here. I made a mistake. I don't feel that I should be getting an assessment of $3,200 when I have nothing at all to those standards.
Unfortunately, we get a lot of those and they all say the same thing.
I'm not all those people. I mean, I'm willing. I lived in town for twenty seven years and I never did wrong to the town. I paid my taxes every year on time. My kids grew up here and one actually resides, bought a house in Andover. It's not like as if we're trying to cheat the town.
Well, all I can say is if you wanna make a motion, then go ahead and make a motion. But just remember, that part of it is the penalty, we can't do it. Georgette, I make a motion that we reduce the property to $500. I'll second that motion, Georgette.
Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. I'm gonna have to abstain because I don't know if that's the penalty amount or not. So anyway, motion passes down to $500 assessment. Okay.
You'll get you'll get okay so yeah Georgette's going for surgery soon but she's going to make sure we send out a notification that it's been reduced and we'll alert the tax assessor's office that it's been reduced And then And the penalty as I understand it, the penalty will be based on $500
Okay. All right. But all that will come to me, like, a bill or whatever? Yeah. And
then make sure he pays it. He always pays it. He pays bills.
Because, you know, we've applied to come here. And then for the appointment for tonight, we got the thing in the mail yesterday. Monday.
This we got Monday. Tuesday. Tuesday. Got it. Yeah. On Monday. Did you get an email through or no? No. Don't think so. Don't think Wow. Registered. May I even did even put it in? No. I didn't. I don't know when they went out. Regardless, we made it. Regardless, we made So
you're all set. That's it. All right. Whatever we need to get. It'll come in the mail and then come down to the assessor's office and fill out your form. There you go.
Can I say something before you guys Yeah, absolutely? Yeah. Listen, the chair the chair wants to say yes. No, actually it's me Marcy Miner. I've been, I just haven't been to any of these meetings so I want to see how they go. I wanted to tell Maria, because your first year in business, you got to make sure you do the tax, and it's due by March 15. So I wanted to alert you to that because the government doesn't they're not giving. If you do something wrong, they don't, they don't forgive you. Exactly. You got to get an accountant and get an LLC. Okay. The
town here. That's his territory. You gotta make sure it's done by March 15. That that's his territory.
Yeah. They've got an accountant. They they've got an accountant that's gonna address it now. Yeah. I just wanted to let you know that because I've been through it.
But thank you. Thank you. Have a good evening, folks. Thank you very much. Have a good night. You. Thanks, Marcy. That's good advice.
Oh, you're welcome. I didn't I feel for you guys. It's not easy,
No. No. Is. This year is harder than most years. We still have Vincent and Patricia Grimaldi.
They here. That's us. They are. Okay. I wanna And so what I'm I'm gonna introduce myself. And this is Linda Armstrong. I'm Ellen Roy. We sit on the board. And the chairperson is at our home right now on Lake Road Lakeside rather. And and that's the young lady in the red sweater. I'm there somewhere. She's there. Okay. So she's going to swear you in with your right hand raised because if you lie to the government, it's a felony. Okay. Five years in jail or $5,000 fine or both.
Raise your right hand please. Do you solemnly swear to, or do solemnly and sincerely affirm as the case may be that the evidence you shall be giving in this concerning this case shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help you God or upon penalty of perjury. Respond by saying I do. Do you? I can't hear you. Super I can't hear you. Okay.
Pardon? Are So the other two people we have the recorder. She's taking minutes. Her name is Amanda. And then I believe that's a public speak person. Marcy Miner, I guess it is. Right.
I didn't I actually didn't call for public speak in the beginning, but
it was on the They were just curious on who else was on there. Yeah. It's just Marcy.
That's okay. I didn't have anything to say anyway. Nature
states Just said the x. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Now you want to what tell
your story is? Yeah. You can explain to us the story and what you worked Well, on and
the assessment on this home, this is a home under construction. And I believe it was this assessment was based on the 10/01/2021 brand. So they originally assessed this house that well, they they were saying the value of the house was worth $457,000 originally. So when we appealed that, went before the
was vision Vision? Whatever. I have that I have that report here. Okay. And then they came back with a lower the assessment. To 206,990? 206,990, right. So, you know, they ordered like $100,000
But they're still saying that this house, which at that time wasn't even 50% complete, worth $295,000 That's ridiculous. This house didn't even have, it was studded walls. There was, there's no siding on it. There was no
drywall. There was, you know what I mean? House Do you have, are you doing the job yourself? Yeah. Well, I'm hiring people. You have okay so does the contractor you're using have an insurance policy and do you know what the insurance policy Okay so do you have a an insurance policy and do you know what it covers in regards to replacing what's there? Right now something happens it burns down the existing. Right, I have no idea at what specific point in construction.
They allow a number. Yeah, they normally do your framing to one point, know, you get into mechanicals it jumps again. So you're in framing only? At
that time we were, yes, we had no, not just the frame. Well, the walls were studded. There were sheathing on the outside. The framing was done. Framing was done. Roof was on? I believe the roof was on that. Yeah.
Came about two weeks after. Okay. So we have a foundation.
Do we have a well? Do we have a septic? The well and septic, yeah, they're in, but they're not hooked up. There's no water to the house yet. Okay.
So it's gotta be worth more than 125,000. I mean, the septic system is not allowed to know that. No, no, no way. You still have to pay taxes on as you're moving. Some people start a project and don't do it for five years. You know what I mean? So you've got a certain number of time to get it done. And so what stage you're in, you've got a septic system that's got to be $30. You've got a well, that's probably $15. You know, you've got a roof on The septic system was $10,000
There you go. I guessed it, but The well is $7,000
Okay. But they're not hooked up. So how do you put a value on
Because it's in the ground and if you sold it, you would say to the new person, Hey, I get a well and I got a septic. And that would be value to that person So hooked I'm just saying, I can see where Is a card on this one? Yeah. There is a card on this one. That would be a card, right? It's 353 Lake Road. 357. Why did they give me They live at 353.
They're building in my goodness. That's what it is. That's my guess. Yep.
Do you have a Georgette? Do you have the field card for the new? I do. I do. It has. Because I have, I didn't catch that they were two different No, it's a Cape Cod residential,
A minus vinyl siding, gable hip asphalt, whatever GIS comp means. She doesn't. She doesn't. Drywall sheet, hardwood floors, ceramic clay tile on interior two, gas propane, hot water heat, central air, three bedrooms. Oh, oh. Bath styling kitchen style modern. And it's got 2,064 living area space. It's it's quite an impressive house.
Look at look at this diagram. Picture. Tell me if that's the diagram of the house we're discussing.
It's a diagram. It shows a diagram of the house, but not a picture. I'm just I'm I'm having him check my field card.
I have this field card in that diagram and I just asked the gentleman if it's appropriately showing us this project of March or 3 '57. 350 '7. Okay, good. They already lowered it. So
It's not a cape cut. It's not vinyl siding. There's even any siding on it. Drywall. I don't know what this other ceramic tile, there's no flooring in there. Like where did all this stuff come from? You haven't seen your field card.
That's what I'm catching. None of that is correct. None of that is correct, but the diagram is correct. Did Vision come in and look at it?
Yes, they did. They did it horrible. It says 1692
1st Floor feet, upper story finished three seventy two and there saying total gross living areas 2,064. The total floor area is 7,141, but they're only giving you 2,000.
You don't have a gas propane system in? Is it planned for you? It's in now. Oh, is now. It was not in October. Wasn't in But it's a three bedroom house. Three bedrooms. Yes.
You got almost 18 acres of land. And they've already given you a 100 and a little 100 and what? Two paragraph?
114,000 off or 113,000 off. So they did lower it already from $3.20 to 206,990. I
can't. So Georgette, he's telling me that the majority of information listed on the card is incorrect. Than the diagram on the back, he said that is the diagram of the property. Okay.
But the just, there are no floors at all in the house at this point. Yet according to this, it has hardwood flooring. And it also says it has ceramic tile floors on ceramic clay tile. Yeah. Interior too. Well, but he says that's not it. We don't have a basement.
Do you want to see this house? I have to. Okay. There's too much. There's too much going on here.
Don't forget Mr. Grimaldi came to us last year to get the property reduced before any house was built.
So currently I get a kimono and I'll take some pictures so Linda and Georgette can see them. That'll be good. So Thursday I have an opening at 11AM or Friday at 10AM.
You can go over there. We're working because it's not yeah locked or anything you see so you can just go over there the taper might be there
all right so I'll come over let's say I'll write this in if I see you I'm home Thursday I work from home Thursday and Friday but if I see you you'll go get I'll the come on over, but I just want to make sure that you know everything is copacetic at work before I just. Yeah, no, I'm going write you down for 11AM Thursday.
And that's three by seven. Okay, so what we'll do is we're going to review with the assessor's office the misinformation and I'll verify the misinformation, no flooring and etc. When I come over on Thursday so I'll see the assessor after I do the visit. And then we'll make I'll make notations on your field card here. We're going to take a few pictures. I'll come back I'll show them to the rest of the committee We'll, we'll end up rescheduling you for a decision and further, discussion. You know, we'll, we'll talk about where you're problem I have with that
is that this assessment is based on 10/01/2020. A lot of stuff you're going see wasn't done then.
I was wondering about that. How does that work? Georgette, your comment on that? The last visit says twelveseventwenty one on the field card. December. So
if I go over there and they've got more accomplished, but it wasn't done in twelvetwenty one, how do we resolve that? Well,
I mean, if if it matches what the fuel card says, I think we have to take that. But, you know, what can I tell you?
Around twelve seven. I don't understand that. Was that the vision? There was an inspection done by vision apparently. 12/07/2021 and the ID is DDMDAsInDavidMAsInMary. Was the drywall up? No. And the floor,
of that. Was it siding? No, it's still not siding. Says final sign. Did you just mention people that the town is paying for? Yeah. They're a bunch of clowns. They don't know what they're doing.
All right. We're sure it was twelveseventwenty one because I can remember the vision guy coming to our home that we live in next door and he was walking through the snow in the backyard. The only reason I knew he was there was because I heard the crunch crunch That was a different visit. But it was during the wintertime. Yeah.
It was close to the I was there when the guy pulled up. He started giving me a big spiel and wanted to see what the progress of the construction is. Didn't wait till the end to tell me it was from the assessment. You've had three visits,
one was 08/2011 was 10/19/2021 and the last one was 12/07/2021 From this vision? The vision was the last one. So they, the process of whoever was going in, whoever gave you your building permit issued it on October 9. Oh, you're talking about the building inspector? Yeah. There Yeah. So, I'll do is taking into note, what I'll do is I'll take your information in detail. This wasn't here. This wasn't here. This wasn't here. I'll see the vinyl siding isn't done even though it's listed here. It's not vinyl. It's not vinyl.
I'm telling you that. It's not vinyl. It's cement board. It's hard to find. So that's what's going to go up. Fireproof That's board, right? Yeah, it won't burn right? Yeah, that's cool. It's fireproof
for bugs though. All right Georgette I think we have to do a revisit on this.
Okay, we'll schedule all of them to be revisited again once you go and see what's there.
I would be happy to go with you, but it's tough enough. No, that's all right. I'll take pictures and then I'll give you a list of what wasn't there at the time of the. Okay.
I am going in for hip replacement a week from today, so I am walking around with a walker and a cane because it's two years overdue. So for me to walk around on property would be impossible. So Alan will do it and if Linda can make it, that'd be fine. Okay. All right. We're all set. We work as a board. We work. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much for coming in. Any questions, any questions to ask us? Yeah. The,
so the assessment is based on 10/01/2021. You visit after that date.
Does that You're going to tell me what was there though and I'm going to take There's a
not like a different procedure for a home that's under construction I mean I could see that the house was existing.
I've been told that construction loans are a big part of it. You know, if you can provide us a report, your insurance report, your construction loan information, but you may be funding it out of your wallet. I don't know what you're doing, But we have to base it, you know, can itemize items, you know, what did you pay to clear the land? What did you do for your foundation? What did you know, there's just a lot of factors you can start filling in and say, it was this, it was this. And in my mind, 01/5000 gets like quick, you know.
So my question is though, you're coming up with a value of the property where you believe that fair market value is of that property.
And I'm going to have to do it without looking at what you've got right now because this is relevant to October. Right. It's not an easy process. I
mean, can you make a list of what you think? Like, where'd you get this 125?
Yeah. I can tell you exactly what I paid for everything. That's what I'm saying. Maybe that helps. Okay. Yeah. Help us write it all down. Yeah. We need something. You know, but don't leave anything out. I mean, if, if you paid a logger to come in and clear, or you did it yourself, I mean, you've got to give us numbers for everything. Dollars 3,000.
Did you take out permits for everything? Your permits would have How long in your office?
The office here. It took us a year to get approved from the town, a year. I know, but you have to take permits out and that has a value on it and generally a date. I can't hear you. We pulled permits for everything that was found somehow I I can't hear what you're saying.
Our files got mixed up with somebody else's and they found some of our checks or whatnot or receipts in somebody else's file. It's been a mess.
It's in building department? Yeah, it's been a mess. They changed secretary? Several We don't even have a billing. We're going to do the best we can and fairly look at this whole thing and your listing, listing will help us. Right. Anything of what we paid. Of what you did,
you're gonna put down. Don't understand that. That's really confusing. So what differences make what I paid for it? What if I paid $300,000 for this stuff? The house is not worth $300,000 What
is it worth and why, like, did you come up with the 125? How did they come up with $2.95?
I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm not real saying. Supposedly they
use a logarithm or something that they put it everything into and they say new construction, blah, blah, it spits out a number. And so we try to look at it with a more practical look, but it would be helpful if you work with us on that. To say, you know, I mean, give me reasonable numbers. What's the foundation cost? Think it was around $2,021,000 for a foundation. Yeah so I mean that so that would be great help of what was there then just give me that as a list. Okay. So we're not experts.
But we understand the, I built my house, but he built this house. Understand the process. I know you're not at the finish, right? And to go back in time, you've got to remember what was done at this point. I mean, we've got people we were from a gentleman who's still not finished and it's been years. A couple of years on us too, but that's a whole other issue. A whole other issue. I hear you there. Oh yeah. Is
this going to be your permanent house? Are you switching from one to the other? Okay any other questions?
No that's it. Do you know how long it'll be before you reschedule?
Am scheduled I just wrote It's got to be done by the end of March yeah it's going to be March 31 all decisions are hopefully it'll be much earlier. Grant list will be set and then they'll figure out what the budget's going to be and then they'll set the millwork. Okay. Oh, feel free to stop by anytime. I'll just try to open. Yeah, no. Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to be in Rhode Island tomorrow. So I can't be some people there working, but it's open. It's quite open. So. All right. Thank you very much for coming in. Good. That's a good friend of mine. She has good things to say about you. Who's that? Chrissy. Chrissy? Oh,
She's the best. Chrissy? I'm on the porch a lot. Actually Chris had both of those.
Yeah, but not recently. Yeah. Was this it? Allen and I wanted to remind you of one thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna turn you around. Hold on. Okay. Thank you. Year, he came to us to get the cost of the the lot reduced because he had been trying to sell it. So we reduced the cost. You did. I said no. But remember the value of the land? I don't remember. I remember the name on it. It's about He's been trying to sell the lot, and he couldn't sell it. And anyway, so you guys And now they're yeah he says he could, they're gonna move into that house and sell the house to rent. I realize that but last year he was gonna sell the lot so just be aware, okay?
I'm aware, I'm aware. Okay. It just makes it more difficult. I mean, he's a tad argumentative in terms of helping work through it. Right. You know, this whole thing, well, I could tell you it's 300,000. I mean, you know, like just work with me on this. We just want to be fair.
Yeah. Yeah. And we, you know, because whatever we take off of him, someone else has to pick up for taxes. But at the same time,
I, it being fair to him. I'm not an expert and I have to look with colored glasses now because
Right. Stuff is in that wasn't in. I know. But I I don't know how they do that. I mean, as the building progresses, do they change the value in the town? I don't know. I would think so. Yeah. It's like the quarter, a quarter, a quarter done. Right. Well, I appreciate you guys going to look at the properties. I would be glad to, but it's just too difficult to get around. I think it's responsible to go do that in some not all instances. It
is, and we did it a couple of years ago for certain houses. We went to visit, Elaine Burkhardt and us, and I went to visit different houses and it is, you get a perspective what I it looks mean one of the places we went, the guy only said they had two bathrooms. And when we went downstairs we saw a bunch of boxes piled in front of a door that had bathroom on it. So that was the third bathroom. Well, he said, gotta leave the door open to go in there. You know, I know people are trying to keep their taxes down, but when you don't pay your fair share, someone else has to pick up the cost. And that's the only thing that I'm saying. Mean, property went up. I have to pay it. So
that's all I'm saying. But anyway, thanks again for agreeing to go out and see these homes. Really appreciate it. Yep. No problem. We need a motion to adjourn. Will it I make a motion we adjourn. Okay. And
thank you, Amanda, for paying attention to us. All in favor,
aye. We are going to adjourn at 08:10. Anytime. Thank you, Amanda. Bye bye, Amanda. Thank you all. Have a good night. Happy Tuesday. Yep. Okay. Thank you.