Assessment of Your Property
The Assessor's Office has begun the process of an In-House Revaluation for the 2024 Grand List. Questionnaires are being sent to owners of properties that have sold over the last 18 months. Completion and return of these questionnaires will be very helpful to the sales analysis of the project and help provide uniformity of assessments. You will see a very well-marked town vehicle displaying Assessor signs throughout the spring and summer months reviewing parcels and in some cases taking updated photos. The assessor will inform the Resident Trooper's Office and Troop C of his approximate locations as he works his way through town.
There are three major steps involved in the assessment of real and personal property:
DISCOVER, LIST & VALUE
The Assessor's Office uses these steps to insure that each property is assessed to the correct person or persons, that no property is omitted or listed twice and that each property is assessed correctly, accurately and uniformly.
Discovery: The Assessor’s first responsibility is to identify both real and personal property. There are many available sources that can reveal pertinent information. Among them are: land records, deeds and property maps, building and demolition permits, physical inspections, personal property declarations, motor vehicle registrations, trade name certificates, zoning permits and online sources. When property is discovered, it is listed for tax purposes.
This process is prescribed by many Connecticut state statutes and is not unique to Tolland. Most of the statutes that address property assessment and taxation are contained in Title 12 of the General Statutes of the State of Connecticut. All the state statutes are available on the Connecticut General Assembly’s website www.cga.ct.gov.
Listing: The cumulative list of property located in a town is known as the Grand List. Property information is listed by the legal owner as of the assessment date and includes the owner’s name, the location of the property, the size of the land, exemptions, any improvements upon the land and the assessment of each parcel. The Grand List is a public document and open for review.
Each parcel of land is listed separately either by address or by block and lot numbers that are associated with the Assessor’s maps. This helps to assure that no property is omitted and each parcel can be identified on the Assessor’s maps and by GIS.
Detailed property information is provided on individual property record cards that are maintained and updated in the Assessor’s office. Tolland property record cards can also be accessed through this link https://gis.vgsi.com/tollandct. The most current and accurate property record cards are available in the Assessor’s office.
Valuation: Connecticut General Statute §12-63 provides that the present true and actual value of property be its fair market value. By definition, fair market value is the amount of money for which property may be exchanged within a reasonable period of time and under conditions in which both buyer and seller are willing, able, and reasonably well informed. Section §12-62a(b) of the Connecticut General Statutes provides that each municipality assess all property for purposes of the local property tax at a uniform rate of seventy percent of present true and actual value.
This means that for a property with a fair market value of $100,000, the assessment would be 70,000. The assessment multiplied by the mill rate equals tax dollars, Assessment x Mill Rate = Tax Dollars. EXAMPLE: 70,000 x .03733 = $2613.10
Fair market values are determined and reestablished during the state’s mandated revaluation cycle.