New assessment unit to help homeowners caught in faulty property valuations

Homeowners who receive incorrect property valuations should no longer have to navigate the system alone, Denmark’s tax and growth minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, says.

Engel-Schmidt plans to create a new unit within the Property Assessment Agency. It will bring together specialists familiar with the valuation system and help people whose cases are difficult, whose information is plainly wrong, or who believe they have been treated unfairly.

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It must be the most capable people, who know the assessment system in depth, who help citizens with a difficult case or who experience outright incorrect information or unreasonable conditions.

The unit will appear on the Property Assessment Portal. Homeowners will be able to describe how they became caught in the system, after which the agency will contact them with specific guidance and help resolving the problem. Engel-Schmidt has asked the agency to respond within two weeks, while saying some people may receive an answer the following day.

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I have asked the agency to ensure that there is an answer to the taxpayer’s inquiry within no more than two weeks. More people will already experience getting an answer the next day.

The Tax and Growth Ministry said the new service will supplement existing guidance and appeals channels. Homeowners must still object within four weeks if they find errors in the declaration sent before the final assessment. Engel-Schmidt said errors should be reported quickly, but stressed that mistakes must be corrected whenever they are discovered.

The proposal follows a DR investigation showing that about 100,000 owner-occupied apartments had been assessed incorrectly because of errors in the valuation model. At a news conference on Monday, Engel-Schmidt also said homeowners should be able to obtain an independent second opinion on whether their valuation was accurate. He suggested that a local estate agent with knowledge of the housing market could provide it.

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It is always easiest if you quickly point out that there is an error when you receive a declaration. But that does not change the fact that if we have made a mistake, it must be corrected, no matter when it is discovered.