Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 38, September 20, 2024
4.1.
County commission duties and responsibilities. -- The county commission when
hearing the petition shall sit as an Administrative Appraisal Review Board.
a. It shall hear such testimony, under oath,
as the petitioner, the Tax Commissioner and other witnesses may offer, and the
hearing shall not be subject to the West Virginia Rules of Evidence.
b. It shall make a true record of the
testimony presented, such record being by nonstenographic electronic recording
suitable to assure that the recorded testimony is true and accurate.
c. It shall assure that any and all other
evidence presented is preserved.
d.
Subsequent to evaluating any and all evidence presented, the county commission
shall make a factual determination as to whether the amount of value fixed by
the appraisal of the property is correct under the circumstances. There is a
rebuttable presumption the appraised value is correct.
1. If the appraisal is found to be correct,
the county commission shall enter an order approving the appraised value and
adopting by reference the determinations and reasons made by the Tax
Commissioner in his review which was conducted under the authority of West
Virginia Code § 11-1A-16(d).
2. If the appraised value is found to be
incorrect and if sufficient evidence was presented to permit correction of the
appraised value, the county commission shall correct the appraisal and fix the
value of the appraised property.
3.
If the county commission finds there is insufficient evidence to determine the
correct value, it shall direct the parties to develop and present additional
evidence, and for this purpose it may continue the hearing until there is
sufficient evidence to fix the correct value. In this context, parties shall
include the owner, the Tax Commissioner, a protestor or an
intervenor.
4. The county
commission upon making the determination as to the correct value of the
property appraised, such determination being in accordance with the immediately
preceding subsections 4.2 and 4.3, shall enter an order and shall inform all of
the parties in writing of its determination. The decision, with the reasons
deemed appropriate by the county commission, shall be on the pre-numbered form
provided for that purpose by the State Tax Department to the county
commission.
4.2. Withdrawal by petitioner. -- If prior to
the assigned hearing time the petitioner should withdraw his petition, the
county commission shall consider as resolved, with the reappraised value
prevailing, the issue of whether the reappraised value was the correct value.
The county commission sitting as the Administrative Appraisal Review Board
shall not reschedule the matter for hearing unless there remains any of the
time limit provided in section 17.3.2 of this regulation:
Provided, That if the petitioner does still desire a hearing, such
hearing may be provided only upon submission of a properly completed Petition
For Hearing and such Petition For Hearing is submitted within the remaining
allotted time.
4.3. Petitioner
failing to attend hearings. -- If the Petitioner does not attend, either in
person or by appropriate representation, the hearing provided for the purpose
of determining the correctness of the reappraised value, the county commission
shall consider the reappraised value to be the correct value and it shall not
reschedule the matter for a subsequent hearing.
