OXFORD — Town sponsored real estate appraisals are always painful, and the notices Oxford property owners received in the mail this month have been no exception.

The town of Oxford contracted with KRT Appraisal of Haverhill, Mass to conduct the revaluation last year. The last one to be done was back in 2009.

Acknowledging that the real estate market today is much different than 14 years ago when the economy was tanking, Town Manager Adam Garland reiterates that any tax payer who demonstrates that they were over assessed should contact the town after receiving their 2023-24 tax bill to file for an abatement.

“The select board and board of assessors chairman, Dana Dillingham, and I met with KRT representatives after the assessment letters were mailed on August 7,” Garland says. “We immediately saw and heard about some of the problems. We directed KRT to review the project to ensure that accurate square footage was used in each appraisal, that any property owner who requested interior inspection received it, and that values assessed in neighborhoods was done fairly and equitably.

Garland also pointed out that when the new assessments are calculated, the first thing he anticipates is that the mill rate used to determine property taxes going forward will be adjusted. KRT Appraisal will present its final assessment to the town on August 28. Selectmen will determine a new mill rate at their next business meeting, scheduled for Sept. 7.

In 2022, the board of selectmen dropped the mill rate by a quarter of a percent, from 15% to 14.75%.

After a dozen concerned residents attended last week’s board of selectmen’s meeting to find out how the town is approaching acknowledged inconsistencies in the process, the Advertiser Democrat put out a query on its Facebook page asking for reaction from others.

Answers were consistent and quick. The post garnered more than 4,250 impressions, 75 comments and close to 3,000 engagements. A few posters answered some questions using Messenger.

Lori Westleigh’s home is on Whittemore Road. Her 2022 assessed value was $153,000; after the recent revaluation it skyrocketed to $319,000. She has lived in the house for eight years. She said there have been no improvements made to her home between the two assessment years.

“I have no idea if the information they used is accurate or not,” she wrote in her message to the newspaper. “I don’t know what they based it on or who actually has the information … the assessment amounts for surrounding homes in my neighborhood varies widely.

“They never came into my house at all for this assessment and never called to ask any questions.”

Westleigh missed the deadline included in her assessment letter to dispute the assessment. The letters, dated August 7 said residents could contact KRT Appraisal between August 8-17 to schedule phone appointments to review their assessment. She said her sister, whose home value essentially tripled, was able to get a phone appointment scheduled for August 23.

Considering mail time of two, three or more days and weekend dates of August 19-20, most residents had only about three days to act.

Danielle Baker saw the value of her Number Six Road home balloon from $258,300 last year to $356,100. Baker reported that she had made no interior improvements to the house since she bought it in 2021. Outside, she had a large tree removed and did a some landscaping, neither of which “cost much or really take a lot of effort.”

“I have not been able to get through to KRT about the appraisal. I called a few times but then moved on due to frustration.”

One resident said they had a real estate appraisal completed a week before receiving their tax assessment from KRT. The revaluation was more than $120,000 more than the real estate appraisal.

Oxford has more than 600 manufactured homes and many residents were floored by their homes’ new values.

“There is no way our double wide mobile home, purchased after being vacant at least a couple years and clearly neglected before that, is worth over $179K,” said Kim Sweetser.

One person said their 1973 mobile home was reassessed at a value of $24,000 and another who owns a 1996 posted hers was valued at $82,000.

Sweetser said her home needs a new roof and currently has only subflooring, and that her deck and two entrance steps are not salvageable. “I was planning to talk with the town that their [first] assess value at $120,900 was too high.”

Harry Sims lives in South Paris, but his family still owns the King Street home in Oxford where his mother lived until she passed away. Sims told the Advertiser Democrat that the limits of when appraisers were available for person-to-person discussion has been frustrating from the start.

“I received the letter last spring,” he said during a phone call late Tuesday afternoon. “But there was only a few days’ notice before the assessment and I couldn’t make it. I need to request time off at work at least two weeks in advance.”

The assessment letter had similar tight turnaround but Sims was able to schedule a phone appointment for Tuesday to appeal. He assumed there must have been a mistake, as when his Paris home was recently reassessed another, very large, house in the neighborhood was incorrectly attributed to be his.

“Our King Street house value went from $120,000 to $206,000,” he said. “After my mother passed away, we had a realtor look at it and were told that the range for a sale price would be between $85,000-$90,000.”

He spoke to KRT Appraisal representative named Doug Rollins, who said the reassessment was based on the housing having three bedrooms, two bathrooms, hardwood floors and a fireplace. KRT had one older exterior picture included in the Sims’ family’s house file, but not the recent one that Sims’ brother saw an appraiser take of the house over the summer.

“It does have three bedrooms,” Sims said. “But the fireplace hadn’t been used in at least 20 years. Both bathrooms are in very poor shape, as are the floors. The house needs a new roof and some of the asbestos siding is missing.

“The person I spoke with said the property details list a full foundation, which is incorrect. Ninety percent of the house is over a crawl space that has standing room of about four-and-a-half feet. The porch is busted up. No one came in the house. Their assessment was done on [a list of] features, not their condition.”

Sims said he insisted several times during his appeal call with Rollins that someone from KRT Appraisal come back out to do a more thorough, and accompanied, reassessment.

“He said that with the timeline they needed to meet that it would not be possible,” he relayed. “I told him that I don’t care about the timeline, it needs to be properly done.”

In the end Rollins agreed to use interior and exterior pictures emailed by Sims.

Shannon Wheeler, a Pottle Road resident, said her mobile home and property went from $39,300 in value to $94,800.

“It’s a ’71 single wide mobile home,” she said in a message to the newspaper last week. “They do not appreciate. Something seems certainly wrong with all assessments.”

But one person who commented on the Advertiser Democrat’s Facebook page was satisfied with her letter from KRT Appraisal.

“Apparently the trick is to make your house look like trash on the outside? Cause mine went down by 10,000,” she wrote. “The exterior needs some some major love. A project I haven’t gotten to yet.”

This past spring KRT Appraisal contracted with Farmington to conduct a residential and commercial property reassessment in 2025 at a cost of $312,000. Last year it signed as agreement with Buckfield to conduct its town-wide revaluation for $145,000. Terms for Buckfield’s contract include a $100 fine for each day KRT exceeds an August 9, 2024 deadline.

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