Over 5,000 assessment appeals still awaiting a verdict in Horry County

Several thousand Horry County property owners not only have new tax bills for 2011 to contend with, but are still waiting on news from their 2010 appeals.

Horry County Assessor Rendel Mincey said there are about 5,600 appeals still in the wings out of the more than 20,500 that owners filed in 2010 asking for another review of their property’s value.

Mincey said the 2010 total followed the 12,000 appeals the assessor’s office received in 2009.

The 2011 tax bills were set to be mailed at the end of October.

The real estate market collapse and decline in prices in recent years drove many property owners to seek a reduction in the value of their property used to determine their taxes.

Mincey had hoped to have all the appeals finished by the end of the year, but it looks as though the process will take a little longer.

“It’s totally due to the number of appeals we’ve had to deal with,” he said. “We’ll get a lot more of them done or answered by the end of the year, but they’ll be a few of them fall past that.”

Any changes made as a result of the appeal will be applied to the 2010 and 2011 tax bills, and if the property is determined to have a lower value, a refund will be sent to the property owner, Mincey previously said.

Last year’s reassessment -- a process done every five years -- used the established value date of Dec. 31, 2008, as per statute, Mincey said.

On Thursday, 7th Congressional District candidate Mande Wilkes sat down with Mincey to talk about the appeals and why the 2008 numbers were used.

A flyer circulated referred to the meeting as the first annual property tax convention, and stated, “You merely rent your property from the government and the rent you pay is in the form of exorbitant property taxes.

“Join us as we confront the slumlord.”

Besides Wilkes, there were three people in attendance.

Mincey said a bill would have to pass in order for the statutes governing assessment to change, which would include established value dates.

Horry County resident David Goldstein, who was in attendance Thursday, said having both residential and commercial assessments is a difficult situation to be in.

Goldstein said he considered Mincey a good person, but said the entire assessment system has problems.

“We have triple-net leases,” he said. “The taxes have become like a second rental fee.”