Horry County officials all had one clear message to taxpayers about their property assessments: “Don’t freak out.”
Earlier this month, 275,000 property owners received notices from the county that the value of their reassessed properties exceeded $1,000.
Since then, there has been confusion and frustration among county residents, with some taking to social media to air their grievances.
Horry County is the fastest-growing county in South Carolina, and its growth has been tremendous in recent years. With that growth has come rising property values.
On Friday morning, Horry County Assessor Larry Roscoe, Horry County Finance Director Shannon Todd and Assistant Horry County Administrator Barry Spivey sat down with local media to answer some of the most common questions they’ve seen, and clear up any confusion.
Question: I just got assessed last year. Why am I getting reassessed again?
According to Roscoe, there are two times when a property owner gets a tax assessment from the county.
- At the time of purchasing the property
- When the whole county gets reassessed on the five-year mark
A resident who bought a house in the fourth year of the tax cycle might be getting reassessed this year. When the new reassessment comes after the home purchase, that becomes the taxable basis for that property.
Roscoe said the positive aspect of all of this is that the highest a reassessment can go after it’s initially assessed is 15 percent higher than that original value.
For some who are seeing increases larger than 15 percent, there is an exception. New properties that have never gone through the state assessment process before can be assessed at their market value. But from there, Roscoe explained that during the next cycle, it can’t go higher than 15 percent above its assessed value this first time around.
Q: Will this assessment value be my tax bill?
The simple answer to that question is no.
Roscoe, Spivey and Todd all agreed that the property tax is just one part of an individual’s overall tax bill for that year. Other factors include whether or not someone owns multiple cars, boats, rental properties and what municipality their properties are located in.
Each municipality in Horry County has a millage, which affects people’s overall tax bill. That rate is different depending on what town or city you live in.
Some local governments may decide to raise that millage to pay for more law enforcement officers or a new fire truck, for example.
Those values have all already been decided by local municipalities during their yearly budget process. All those budgets were agreed upon by the end of this fiscal year, June 30.
Based on those budgets, Horry County knows three municipalities that will have higher millages this next year: Conway, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside.
Roscoe said his office will have a new online system this year that will allow people to estimate their tax bill based on the municipality they live in. They’re still waiting on getting those final millage numbers in, and he hopes the system will be up and running by the end of this month.
The actual tax bills will be sent out in October of this year and due in January 2025.
Q: How should I appeal my assessed property value?
The easiest way to find evidence for an appeal is by using an online service like Zillow, Roscoe explained.
From there, homeowners can see the comparable values for houses in their neighborhood. If there’s a big discrepancy between the value of your home versus others in the neighborhood, that would be a very legitimate case for an appeal.
Typically, appeals take one to two days to resolve once they’re looked at by the assessor’s office. Roscoe said they look at appeals in the order his office receives them in.
Other factors that could yield to a successful appeal include whether or not there’s been damage that the county was unaware of when making its assessment. Examples of that include a termite infestation or unreported storm or flood damage.
Last year, Todd said their office had 4,000 appeals, equivalent to about 1.25% of the properties they assessed.
According to Roscoe, 99.9% of appeals are decided when assessors discuss them with property owners.
“It’s literally written into the books. . . the last step says appeals,” he said. “Because we want to give the community feedback and an opportunity to be apart of this process, so if we’ve made an error you’re not stuck with that error.”
Q: I don’t live in a municipality. What does this all mean for unincorporated Horry County residents and businesses?
If you live in an unincorporated part of Horry County, like Carolina Forest. The County Council has decided not to raise any tax millages this year.
Based on Todd and Roscoe’s calculations, the average property tax bill for those residents and businesses will be around $40.
That number is based on the median home price for unincorporated Horry County, which is $352,000.
In total, they said 75% of unincorporated homes and businesses will see their property taxes increase by less than $200, and 6% of residential properties will see their property taxes decrease.
Q: I called the assessor’s office and they haven’t gotten back to me. What’s going on?
Roscoe said the best way to contact someone from the tax assessor’s office is to send them an email at hcg.assessor@horrycountysc.gov, noting that every single email gets a reply from someone in his office.
This is the busiest time of year for his office, which has 70 people. Out of those 70, 24 field appraisers service approximately 20,000 parcels each year.
“Fifty percent of our work comes in twenty percent of the year,” Roscoe said. “It does create some lag.”
During this time of year, he said their office receives more than four calls a minute, sometimes as many as eight calls a minute. That equates to about 75,000 phone calls a year and over 30,000 in-person visitors.
All of the tax assessor services are available online .
“Don’t freak out, it’s truly not that much of an increase on average,” Todd said.
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