Norfolk assessors may look, but not knock - or ask

Employees of Norfolk's Real Estate Assessor's Office will no longer knock on residents' doors to ask about improvements to their homes.

The City Council directed Real Estate Assessor Deborah Bunn to tell her assessors to view property only from the sidewalks or streets.

Earlier this spring, assessors began fanning out into the city's neighborhoods to better determine home values. If invited inside, they would inspect the interior of homes. If nobody was home and the gate to the backyard was not locked, they would venture onto the property to inspect the home's exterior.

The practice became controversial after media coverage sparked homeowner reaction. Some saw it as a violation of their privacy rights.

A majority of the council, including Mayor Paul Fraim, initially favored continuing the inspections.

However, Fraim announced on Tuesday that he had changed his mind, and most council members agreed.

Fraim said he was convinced by discussions with homeowners in recent weeks.

"People see it as a way for the city to push assessments up, as a way to squeeze every last dollar," he said.

"We haven't done this in a long time, and people say we're doing it in a market that's depressed. That's something that hadn't occurred to me."

Fraim suggested that the council revisit the issue in a couple of years.

Councilman Barclay C. Winn agreed with Fraim but said he did so reluctantly.

"I'd hate it if we get to the point that a city employee can't knock on a door and ask to see improvements," he said.

Countered Councilman W. Randy Wright: "There's nothing in the state code and city code that says we need to go out in this manner. People think we're trying to get an extra pint of blood out of the turnip."

Bunn told the council that Chesapeake and Suffolk assessors do the same kind of inspections yearly. She acknowledged that Norfolk hadn't in decades. "It's the newness factor and the fact that we announced it to the public," she said.

"Other cities do it without making the public announcement we did. No good deed goes unpunished."

Bunn said the door-to-door inspections helped her office to provide more accurate assessments. She said people sometimes make improvements to their homes, especially to the interiors, without getting building permits.

Viewing houses from the streets or sidewalks won't be as informative, but could be beneficial, she said.

"We can get familiar with the dynamics of the neighborhood," she said. If an assessor sees an addition to a house, he or she can take a photo of the property.

The council also instructed Bunn to begin using more timely assessment data beginning next year. Norfolk uses sales data that can be six months older than data used by neighboring cities to establish assessment values for real estate taxes.

Council members said that, in the midst of a slump in housing prices, using older data was forcing some homeowners to pay real estate taxes based on inflated values.

Bunn will meet with the council again June 30 to work out details of the transition to using newer data.

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com