A consultant has completed the 10,300 hearings requested by property owners questioning their new assessments following a countywide update for Sussex County.

The hearings were held over the course of about a month by 28 employees of Tyler Technologies, the consultant conducting the revaluation of nearly 200,000 parcels, the first countywide update in a half-century.

Mary Noldy, Mid-Atlantic regional manager for Tyler, said scheduling of hearings had been completed, with the final 600 hearings conducted through Jan. 3.

Of the 10,300 requests, more than 800 withdrew. Some people did not show up for their appointments, said Noldy, although she did not have a figure for how many.

Property owners had the option to meet with Tyler staff at space provided by Sussex County or speak by telephone.

“Interesting enough, 56% of the population who requested a meeting requested a phone appointment,” Noldy said.

She said the company has seen a similar trend in other municipalities for which it has handled assessment updates since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another contributing factor in Sussex County is that many people own vacation homes in the county and live elsewhere, so speaking by telephone is more convenient.

Mailers will be sent to those who had hearings, providing them with final values for their properties. 

Tyler will be working through the end of the month to finalize its assessment figures. They are scheduled to be provided to the county Saturday, Feb. 15.

Any property owner who is not satisfied with Tyler’s figure after an informal hearing, and those who choose not to pursue such a hearing, can request a formal hearing before the Sussex County Board of Assessment. Applications are available in the Sussex County Assessment Office or online at sussexcountyde.gov.

Chip Guy, communications director for Sussex County, said he did not have any new information on the progress of the assessment update.

Since the initial mailings to property owners were sent out Nov. 1, ongoing construction projects required additional changes to individual assessments and some of those property owners requested hearings, Noldy said

Sussex County’s contract with Tyler Technologies will keep the consultant involved through the county’s own formal hearing process to provide information on how individual assessments were determined and to calculate the effect of changes on assessments.

Assessments are used to determine the portion of government expenses that are billed to the owners of each parcel. The new assessments will be used for the first time this August to calculate county and school tax bills. Many municipalities in the county use the county assessment figures, with the exception of Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, which conduct their own independent assessments.

State law allows school districts to raise property tax revenue by up to 10% after an assessment update, and decisions will be made by each school district, said Sussex County Finance Director Gina Jennings.

The countywide reassessment was spurred by an education funding lawsuit filed against the State of Delaware and all three counties in 2018. The case was settled in 2021, with all three counties agreeing to conduct property reassessments.

Under terms of the original settlement, Sussex County was scheduled to complete its reassessment project by 2024 in time for tax bills to be issued in late summer and ahead of the annual Sept. 30 tax payment deadline. That timeline has now shifted a year.

“We’ve got a solid four to six weeks ahead of us,” Noldy said. “We’re looking forward to finishing the project strong and having the data correct and turn it over to the county.”