Request By:
Mr. David G. Mason
Attorney at Law
Main Street
New Castle, Kentucky 40050
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: William P. Sturm, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter of October 11, 1980 you state that a property valuation administrator sent to a property owner a Notice of Tax Increase in April of 1980. Subsequently the tax bills came out and the individual's tax bill was based on a higher assessment than in his April notice. No notice of the higher increase was given. You ask whether the increase in the tax bill resulting from the higher assessment is valid. The answer is no.
KRS 132.450(4) provides in relevant part:
(4) If the Property Valuation Administrator assesses any property . . . at a greater value than that listed by the taxpayer . . ., the property valuation administrator shall serve notice on the taxpayer of such action. The notice shall be given by first-class mail. . . .
In
Layson v. Brady, Ky. App., 576 S.W.2d 223 (1979), the Kentucky Court of appeals construed KRS 132.450(4). In that case the Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) had sent notices to certain individuals but not to others. The taxpayers not receiving notice contended that their whole assessment was void because of the PVA's failure to give notice. The Court disagreed stating:
"The only part of an assessment which may be voided for lack of notice is the amount of the increase." 576 S.W.2d at 226.
Thus, in the situation such as you describe, the amount of the assessment increase over the April notice is void as is the additional tax resulting from that increase.