Programming error led to major increases in some property values in Lucas County

LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio —

Some Lucas County property owners may have had a surprise when they got their property tax bills.

There was a programming issue by the contractor who did the property evaluations in the county. According to the auditor’s office, at least 346 properties were impacted by the issue.

Seeing an increase in property value was not supposed to be a shock for homeowners, according to Lucas County auditor Katie Moline.

“Property values have increased in general throughout the state, throughout the nation,” Moline said. “A lot of people did anticipate an increase.”

Moline said the levies passed in November could also be part of the reason people saw higher property tax bills.

Moline said community members could have seen a 30% to 40% increase. She said those impacted by the programming error saw increases closer to 70%.

One homeowner, Mohamed Kadoura, had a 140% increase in his property value and more than a 100% increase in his property taxes.

Moline said the programming error was noticed while conducting informal appeals last year, and the office started to investigate it.

She said by the time they noticed the issue, there were only two weeks to get property values submitted to the state. She said they continued to work on it after submitting numbers and can now go to the board of revision to update everyone’s property values all at once.

Moline said throughout the informal appeal process, there were 346 homes found that had been impacted by the programming issue, but there could be more that did not go through the process. She said the office is working to find those properties now.  

“I’m committed to fixing this,” Moline said. “We’re going to make it right. We’re going to make people whole. If any taxes were overpaid, especially as a result of this, they will be made whole. I’m looking through legal channels and maybe other type of remedies we might be able to do for folks that were affected.”

Kadoura said he tried to file an informal appeal in September, but it was denied. Now, he’s hoping to be one of those 346 homes the county determined were impacted by the programming error.  

His house was last valued at $478,800 in 2021, and as of September, is now valued at $1,147,900.

“If they feel like my house is worth that, I will sell it in the blink of an eye,” Kadoura said.

Moline said they are sending out letters to the 346 homeowners soon and by next week the office will know the total amount of people that were impacted by the programming error.

Moline said there is no one particular area of the county where people were impacted and those who were will be retroactively reimbursed for any overpayment in taxes.

People can file a formal review from now until the end of March and then the auditor’s office will schedule a hearing. 

Kadoura said he did file a formal appeal and hopes this can be rectified. He said he wants to know how the county will avoid something like this happening again.

“It‘s stressful to a lot of people,” Kadoura said. “A lot of people cannot afford it. This is going to create a lot of problems in our community and society.”

Moline said even if someone thinks they were impacted by the programming error, it’s best to still go ahead and file for the formal review.