County of Blair Board of
Assessment Appeals
423 Allegheny Street, Suite 041
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648
814.693.3110
1. FILING DEADLINES
Annual appeals must be filed on or before
September 1. Any appeal received after the
filing date or postmarked after September 1, will
be rejected as untimely filed.
Appeals filed on new assessments or changes
of assessment must be received within 40 days
of the date of the change of assessment notice.
2. FILING PROCEDURE
Assessment appeals must be filed by the owner
of the property, an authorized representative of
the owner, or a lessee responsible for payment
of real estate taxes.
Specific time intervals are in 30 minute time
blocks.
Example: If your assigned time is 1:00
p.m., your actual hearing should be
between 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.,
depending on your arrival and sign in time.
You will appear before the Board in order of
when you signed in within the assigned time
interval. We do our best to stay on schedule,
but at times there are slight delays and at times
we may even be ahead of schedule. We
appreciate your patience.
7. HEARING PROCEDURES
A representative of the Blair County
Assessment
Office
will
introduce
the
assessment record into evidence. Once the
assessment record is entered into evidence,
there is a presumption of the law that the
assessment is correct unless proven otherwise
by the party filing the appeal. The burden of
proof of value or uniformity is therefore upon the
party filing the appeal to establish their case.
3. FEE SCHEDULE
Residential single-family dwelling property...$20
(Designated for use by not more than two families.)
Vacant land property type ………….………..$20
All other property types …………….………$100
Note: Fees are nonrefundable.
4. NOTICE OF HEARING
Notice of the date and time of hearing shall be
deposited in the mail 20 days prior to the
scheduled day and time to appear.
5. FAILURE TO APPEAR AT HEARING
Failure of the party filing the appeal or their
representative to appear at the hearing after
due notice thereof shall be considered an
abandonment of the appeal. The abandonment
of the appeal means that the appeal will end
with no decision of the Blair County Board of
Assessment Appeals (Board), and no appeal is
allowable to the Court of Common Pleas.
6. HEARING TIME
Approximately 10 minutes are allocated per
hearing. You must sign in upon arrival and you
will be scheduled for a specific time interval.
The party filing the appeal must appear to
present his or her case at the hearing, with the
exception that an attorney licensed to practice
law in Pennsylvania may attend on behalf of the
party filing the appeal. An attorney may appear
on behalf of the party filing the appeal only if
written authorization from the party filing the
appeal is provided at the time of hearing. A real
estate appraiser is not permitted to represent
the party filing the appeal at the hearing,
although he or she may accompany the party
filing the appeal or their attorney to testify at the
hearing.
The party filing the appeal or representative
then will submit such evidence to the Board to
support their case. The party filing the appeal is
encouraged to produce at least one still
photograph of the property under appeal and at
least one still photograph of every property
used as a comparable. The Board may require
the party filing the appeal to furnish additional
information or data to consider in arriving at a
fair market value. At the conclusion of the
hearing and after such review and consideration
as may be required, the Board will render its
decision.
Testimony regarding taxes, tax increases,
percentage of assessment increases, financial
ability to pay, and related complaints will not be
permitted. The determination to be made by the
Board is “fair market value” of the property
under appeal, based on market value and
uniformity.
established Pre-Determined Ratio, in
which case the Board shall apply the
Common Level Ratio to the market
value of the property.
In the case of an assessment that includes both
land and buildings, testimony will be accepted
concerning only the total value. The Board will
not consider the appeal of either land or
buildings as separate from the total.
The appeal must therefore be substantiated by
an opinion of current market value of the
property under appeal and/or substantially
prove inequity based on similar property
assessments. The party filing the appeal must
be prepared to support this opinion by evidence
which may include, without limitation, the
following:
Blair County utilizes a base valuation year for
assessment of 1958, with a stated ratio of
assessment to market value of 100%, beginning
January 2010. Your assessment is therefore
expressed in 1958 dollars. The relationship of
the base-year assessment to current market
value of the property is controlled by the
Common Level Ratio (CLR) of assessment in
effect as of the date the appeal was filed. The
CLR presently set for Blair County by the
Pennsylvania State Tax Equalization Board
(STEB) will be provided at the hearing.
•
current appraisal of the property no
more than 18 months old,
•
sales of comparable properties within
the last 18 months,
•
sale of the property in question within
the last 18 months,
•
income and expense data regarding the
property, as appropriate, and
•
studies, preferably statistical, relating to
the level of assessment of similar comparable
properties within a specific geographic proximity
to the property under appeal.
Your assessment will be equalized with the
assessments of properties throughout the entire
county by the application of the Common Level
Ratio of assessment to the Board’s finding of
current market value.
Pennsylvania Statutes, P.S. 72, 5453.702 (b)(1)
& (2) and (c).
(b)
In any appeal of assessment, the Board
shall make the following determinations:
(1)
The market value as of the date
such appeal was filed before the Board.
(2)
The Common Level Ratio
published by the State Tax Equalization
Board on or before July 1 of the year
prior to the tax year being appealed to
the Board.
(c)
The Board, after determining the market
value of the property, shall then apply the
established Pre-Determined Ratio to such value
unless the Common Level Ratio published by
the State Tax Equalization Board on or before
July 1 of the year prior to the tax year being
appealed to the Board varies by more than
fifteen per centum (15) from the
A professionally-prepared appraisal may be
submitted to substantiate current market value.
Statistical reports on assessment uniformity
should be submitted to the Board, when
applicable. Any appraisals, statistical reports, or
supportive documents, which will be used to
substantiate value at the hearing, should be
submitted to the Blair County Assessment
Office 10 days prior to the date of the hearing
for forwarding to the Board. Five (5) copies of
the appraisals, statistical studies, or supportive
documents are requested.
The decision order of the Board shall be
entered in the minutes of the Board, and a copy
of such order shall be delivered to the person
who appealed to the address shown on the
submitted appeal form.