Laramie County Assessor Says Appraisers Avoid Confrontations

Laramie County Assessor Ken Guille says that while his tax appraisers legally have the right to go on private property to assess its taxable value, he won't order them to go into hostile or dangerous situations.

Guille says Wyoming Department of Revenue and state Board of Equalization rules--which he says are laws--allow appraisers to enter private property to do a tax valuation.

But he says his first priority is the safety of his employees, and so if someone tells his office that appraisers are absolutely not going to be allowed on a property, his office will not force the issue. Appraisers will instead do an assessment as best as it can from available information.

That applies only not only to avoiding showdowns with hostile property owners but also to vicious dogs, meth houses and other situations that might endanger the safety of an appraiser. He also says the accuracy of a tax valuation may sometimes be hindered by the inability to actually enter the property.

Guille also says that while people sometimes complain about appraisers showing up unannounced, the fact is that is just isn't logistically possible to notify each of the roughly 10,000 property owners who have property evaluated each year that an appraiser will be coming onto their property.

He does say that he tries to inform people through the County Assessor website that appraisers may be visiting them soon, but he adds it just isn't possible to call everyone ahead of time.

Guille says local tax valuations in Laramie County in 2017 were up by about six percent compared to last year. But he cautions that the increase is an overall number and does not mean every single property saw a 6 percent increase it's tax valuation.