The City Tax Assessor has started  sending letters to 40,859 property owners inviting them to open their doors for a 10-to-15-minute inspection of their homes and businesses. Property owners will be able to make appointments over the internet and phone.

The visits are not to check on whether the dishes were put away, the carpets vacuumed, or the clothes picked up from the floor. Rather, explains Tax Assessor Neal Dupuis the visits are to verify what is on record in terms of interior conditions that may have improved, deteriorated or are basically the same since the city’s last full revaluation in 2015.

As for the exterior of the properties, the city knows from aerial imagery and the technologies available whether there have been additions and the overall condition of the property from crumbling front stairs to new siding. The days of exterior in-person inspections have pretty much been replaced with aerial imaging than can be maneuvered to give a 360 view of the property all from a computer.

Department personnel will get out and, on the road, to make those in-home visits beginning July 8. This is part of a full revaluation,  as compared to statistical revaluations,  that  must be conducted every nine years. And to do it, inspectors will be driving a Chevy Volt, two new Ford Explorers and two new Ford Escapes replacing the Crown Victorias that have been with the city for years.

“It’s all grant money,” Dupuis said of the $160,000 for the new cars. New cars may sound somewhat extravagant , but the overall full revaluation will represent more than a million dollar savings over prior full revaluations.

As City Finance Director Peder Schaefer explained to the City Council earlier this year when it approved a $359,000 contract with Vision Government Solutions Inc. the city is embarking on an innovative  “hybrid” revaluation that is being watched for potential savings by other municipalities . Dupuis pointed out the last time the city contracted for a full revaluation it cost $1 million. This time around with use of technology the city staff is able to address aspects of the program previously managed by contract. Also, the city is looking to streamline the process of inspecting properties and then once values have been assigned reviewing disputes.

Using Vision Government Services, Cranston, which has fewer parcels of property than Warwick, recently completed a full revaluation at a cost of $1.4 million. With the use of city staff and selective use of Vision, Dupuis projected the total cost of the Warwick program at $500,000.

Dupuis said letters are timed to go to adjoining neighborhoods so that inspections are concentrated in an area and inspectors aren’t crisscrossing the city. Inspectors will wear identification badges.  Some sections of the city won’t get letters until November, he said. By contract, Vision Government Solutions will conduct a portion of the inspections with city personnel doing the balance. Vision will also be involved in evaluating commercial properties calculated on income revenues as well as performing a field review of values in the fall.

Dupuis described the revaluation as consisting of four phases: data collection, analysis, valuations that includes hearings and review. He said the city is currently in the data collection, walk through and sales analysis phase.

The revaluation is of Dec. 31, 2024, meaning to be as accurate as possible assessors will be using sales as close to that date as possible. Letters with the assigned values will then be sent to property owners and a period will start where property owners can question the value. Adjustments may or may not be made, but that doesn’t end the right to appeal. Appeals are made to the Board of Tax Review and if property owners are not happy with the board’s ruling, they can contest valuations in Superior Court.

As he has done with every revaluation Dupuis stressed the revaluation is designed to assign a fair value on property not a mechanism to increase taxes.

The letter to property owners reads, “Revaluations are more appropriately called Tax Equalization Programs; the intent is to correct inequities in our tax base that develop over time, not to raise taxes. By Law, revaluations are revenue neutral for the City as a whole. “