SUPERVISORS CORNER
All property owners received a Notice of Assessment in the mail within the last few weeks. You do not have to do anything with this notice. It is for informational purposes only and is required by law to be sent to you every year. The information on this notice is about your property. Every year the Assessor has to look at the property values in our community and determine, based on current and past real estate market conditions, whether the value of our properties should change. Should they increase, if markets have gone up and stayed up, or should they decrease if those same markets have decreased. They also add any new construction. Once they determine the market impacts they will apply any changes to our property values and notify each of us of the change. We then have the right to question these changes and, if we can show proof that they are unreasonable, possibly have them reduced. In our Township the assessor sends out a newsletter that spells out the process for disputing any change and what the changes are and their impact on your taxes. Some changes may not affect your taxes, while others can have large impacts. As always, if you have any questions please call myself or the assessor to help you understand these changes and their impact.
One of the issues that keep coming across my desk is property line disputes. Many of these issues result from buildings located many years ago when either one or both owners were either relatives or close friends and they “agreed” on where they believed the property lines were. However neither actually surveyed nor in some cases they never even measured to check the assumed line locations. This has led to numerous cases where buildings either encroached on the lines or just flat ran over them. An encroachment is when a building is too close to the line and does not meet the legal setback requirements. In our community on most residential lots those dimensions are 25’ from the back property line and 25’ from the front property line or usually the road right-of-way. The side yard setback is 10’ on one side and 6’ on the opposite side. You can only chose which side is the short side if no buildings exist on the lot or if all current buildings are at least 10’ from all side property lines. If building(s) already exist and one side is less than 10’ then all buildings on that lot need to use the side less than 10’ as the short side yard even though it may be greater than 6’. The second problem and by far the worse one is when a building is constructed over a property line and is located on your neighbors, either by a little or a lot, and is a legal hassle to solve. I will tell you that if you find yourself in this situation, get a lawyer to work the issue out. I do not recommend to try and AI your way through this. Every situation is different and no one size fits all solution is usable. Also, be patient. These issues’s take time to resolve and are not necessarily a high priority in court scheduling if you find you have to go before a judge. If you and your neighbor can work out an agreeable solution then the costs can be minimized and court can be avoided. Talk with your local Zoning people if you think you can work out a solution with the neighbor. Otherwise it’s off to court you go. These are also the reason that your local Zoning Officials will ask for a survey or some document showing the property lines. Surveys are kept at the surveyor or the Registrar of Deeds. They may be with your assessment record if they were recorded, but most surveys are not recorded and either are the property of the owner or the bank and the surveyor. Try and find copies before you come in for a permit. It might save you a trip and some frustration. The Zoning Administrators are just trying to do their job right and avoid building errors that may cost you or your heirs in the future.
Consider a membership at the Community Center and Eagle Point Plaza. You can come and enjoy pickleball at any time, yoga, cardio drumming, fitness training, walking or some more intense TOWANDA. Whatever your need we probably have some form of activity to assist you. So stop in and see Roma about a membership. We would love to see you. When you’re here stop in on Tuesdays to the Plainfield Township Historical Museum. They have great displays of our community throughout history and how our members lived long ago. The members do a great job preserving and showcasing our heritage. As always if you ever have any questions, comments or concerns regarding our community please contact me. I am in the office Monday – Friday 7:30 – 4:00 at 989-728-2811 or my cell at 989-984-7073 or by email supervisor@plainfieldtwpmi.com.
Fred Lewis – Supervisor Plainfield Township(updated)
