Dr. David Birch and his wife bought a two-story house in the Highland Acres neighborhood 37 years ago, when they moved to Lewes from Pittsburgh, Pa., for a better quality of life. 

They did extensive renovations to make their house a home. Their children rode bikes to the candy store in town before farmland along the way was developed for housing and the trip became less safe.

Birch, a retired family physician, was surprised this week when he received a notice in the mail of his tentative property assessment for 2025. He was expecting a change, but not the 50% increase he received. 

“It wasn’t anywhere near what they assessed us at this year,” he said. 

Birch owns one of the nearly 200,000 parcels in Sussex County whose owners are being informed of proposed new values as part of the first countywide reassessment in a half century.

Sussex County Director of Finance Gina Jennings said Nov. 22 that 140,000 tentative value notices had been mailed two days earlier, and the balance – mostly in the Indian River School District and waterfront areas – were being sent Nov. 27.  

She urged property owners to review the information and contact Tyler Technologies, the consultant conducting the revaluation, with any questions. 

“We are asking that people pay attention,” Jennings said. “If they don’t ask Tyler any questions, these will be the last mailings. That is what the value will be based on.”

Tyler received a more than $9 million contract in 2021 to conduct the countywide assessment update, the first since 1974. The fee is based on the number of parcels being assessed. Development in the county during the update process has pushed the company’s fee closer to $10 million, Jennings said. Tyler staff visited every accessible property, estimating from outside the square footage and other details, said Mary Noldy, Mid-Atlantic regional manager for Tyler.  A drone was used to view properties that could not be reached easily.

The company used that data as it created market models, using 30 months of sales data to determine market values, Noldy said.

The information on each property was sent to the landowner, who had an opportunity to correct any errors before the tentative reassessment values were determined. The amended values are being distributed by Tyler.

New assessments will be used to determine county and school tax bills for the first time in August 2025.

Many municipalities in the county use the county assessment figures, with the exception of Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, which conduct their own independent assessments.

Information on trends of the countywide assessment update are unavailable as details are still in the possession of the contractor, Jennings said.

Noldy declined to provide information Nov. 25, saying the work is incomplete and would be shared with the county at the beginning of February.

Property owners who spoke with Tyler are concerned about how the process could affect their tax bills, but they generally agree that their tentative assessments are accurate,  she said

“We’re hearing the values are right,” Jennings said. “That’s good. That means we’ve done our jobs.”

Landowners who disagree with the tentative assessments will have a chance to challenge the figures before they are used to determine tax bills. Property owners can request appointments for informal hearings with Tyler Technologies.

The owner would have to prove the assessed value is higher than the market value of the property. Acceptable evidence includes comparable property sales between Jan. 1, 2021, and June 30, 2023, and appraisals dated Jan. 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. The website contains more information.  

A request for a hearing must be made within two weeks of receiving the notice containing the tentative property value, so the clock is ticking. Noldy said hearings will likely continue through the first couple of weeks in December.  

Requests can be made online at tylertech.co/sussex or by calling 1-833-703-4016. 

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.

The county will make the assessment revenue neutral, meaning it will not use the update as an opportunity to increase revenue, Jennings. said. The county will lower its tax rate so that it will not collect more than the year before its reassessment. Under state law, the county could have increased tax revenue by up to 15%, Jennings said.

“We will try to make the impact as bearable as it can be,” she said.

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, Jennings said.

The countywide reassessment was spurred by an education funding lawsuit filed against Delaware and all three counties in 2018. The case was settled in 2021, with the 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.

Currently, Sussex County property owners pay taxes based on 50% of a property's 1974 appraised value. County property tax is 10% of the annual bill, while 90% is school taxes. On average, single-family home owners pay $118 per year in county property taxes; manufactured home owners pay an average of $46 per year.

Birch said the tentative value set for his four-acre property is several hundred thousand dollars more than it is listed for on the Zillow real estate website. But he said he probably won’t contest the figure, noting the information he would have to provide is the same that Tyler used to set the value.

”I don’t know if I have a basis to challenge it,” he said.