Audit report: Orleans Assessor methods resulted in unfair property taxes

Cover Image

An audit of the Orleans Parish Assessor by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor finds the parish assessor did not follow proper state regulations in appraising and assessing appropriate property taxes.The report finds several problems in the way the assessor’s office valued residential and commercial property. The Auditor’s report found not all properties were appraised in 2020 as required by state law. The assessor’s office says it did not appraise all properties because it has its own plan of randomly appraising 25% of properties in Orleans Parish each year instead of appraising all properties once every four years as required by state law.The report says, “As a result, the properties that were not reappraised may have been undervalued by 14.6% to 18.3%%, and the owners of these properties may have paid less than their fair share of taxes.”“So, all across the board, within neighborhoods, between neighborhoods, between parts of the city, you have all these different metrics being used to value the property,” said Louisiana Representative Stephanie Hilferty who called for the audit of the Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office.

The report also finds the parish assessor did not meet international guidelines for variables between similar properties in the same neighborhood.

“Let’s say, you and I live in the same neighborhood and we are supposed to have the same evaluation of the house, you are paying $250,000 based on the assessment, my assessment is $150,000 so yes we averaged $200,000 for our homes but you are paying a lot more than I am Well that’s not fair even at the most basic level,” said New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso of District ‘A’.The report found vacant lots were undervalued by the assessor which led to owners of non-vacant lots to be unfairly taxed more.Another method the audit found unfairly taxed properties was something called “sales-chasing” which the report says, “sold properties were assessed 14.9% higher than unsold properties as a result of this practice. Using sales chasing resulted in an increase in property value by $385.8 million and may have contributed to a lack of uniformity in property appraisals in Orleans Parish.”