Reassessment Information

South Carolina law requires real property to be reassessed every five years. Reassessment updates the values used for property tax bills. The new values should be as close as possible to market values at the time of the reassessment.

Reassessment is supposed to increase the equity of property taxes. Some values increase or decrease more than others over the years. Reassessment brings official property values up to date.

Reassessment has been completed for Lexington County. Assessment notices were mailed to real property owners on April 18, 2005. Assessment notices are subject to change if an error is discovered or a change is made to the property. Taxpayers will have 90 days from the date of the assessment notice to file valuation appeals (appeals based on market factors).

Assessment notices are NOT tax bills. Tax bills using the new values will be mailed in October 2005. State law requires tax millages to be rolled back the year of reassessment. The lower millage rates should somewhat offset property tax bill increases for properties that rose in value since the last reassessment. The lower rates also should reduce property tax bills on other classes of property, such as vehicles.

The millage rate rollback provisions require that the grand total revenue from all property taxes on all properties is to remain at the pre-reassessment level. This does not apply to increases in revenue resulting from new construction, adjustments for inflation, unusual circumstances that require special public notice, or required payments on bonded indebtedness.

Below is a link to a page that will allow you to obtain reassessment information by Tax Map Number or owner name. There are also links to Frequently Asked Questions about reassessment and property tax assessment, an online valuation appeal form, and an Op-Ed article from The State about reassessment.

Inquiry Form

Frequently Asked Questions

Reassessment Seeks to Fairly Distribute Property Tax Load (www.thestate.com)