Florida Senate - 2019                              CS for SB 710
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Community Affairs; and Senator Baxley
       
       
       
       
       
       578-03294-19                                           2019710c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to the administrative review of
    3         property taxes; amending s. 194.011, F.S.; providing
    4         that, in certain counties, a petition to the value
    5         adjustment board may be filed late for good cause;
    6         defining the term “good cause”; requiring that late
    7         filed petitions be filed within a specified timeframe;
    8         amending s. 194.032, F.S.; revising the definition of
    9         the term “good cause” to exclude certain circumstances
   10         in certain counties; authorizing clerks of county
   11         governing bodies of such counties, within a certain
   12         timeframe, to request property appraisers and
   13         petitioners to identify certain dates of
   14         unavailability for hearing; providing an effective
   15         date.
   16          
   17  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   18  
   19         Section 1. Present paragraph (h) of subsection (3) of
   20  section 194.011, Florida Statutes, is redesignated as paragraph
   21  (i), and a new paragraph (h) is added to that subsection, to
   22  read:
   23         194.011 Assessment notice; objections to assessments.—
   24         (3) A petition to the value adjustment board must be in
   25  substantially the form prescribed by the department.
   26  Notwithstanding s. 195.022, a county officer may not refuse to
   27  accept a form provided by the department for this purpose if the
   28  taxpayer chooses to use it. A petition to the value adjustment
   29  board must be signed by the taxpayer or be accompanied at the
   30  time of filing by the taxpayer’s written authorization or power
   31  of attorney, unless the person filing the petition is listed in
   32  s. 194.034(1)(a). A person listed in s. 194.034(1)(a) may file a
   33  petition with a value adjustment board without the taxpayer’s
   34  signature or written authorization by certifying under penalty
   35  of perjury that he or she has authorization to file the petition
   36  on behalf of the taxpayer. If a taxpayer notifies the value
   37  adjustment board that a petition has been filed for the
   38  taxpayer’s property without his or her consent, the value
   39  adjustment board may require the person filing the petition to
   40  provide written authorization from the taxpayer authorizing the
   41  person to proceed with the appeal before a hearing is held. If
   42  the value adjustment board finds that a person listed in s.
   43  194.034(1)(a) willfully and knowingly filed a petition that was
   44  not authorized by the taxpayer, the value adjustment board shall
   45  require such person to provide the taxpayer’s written
   46  authorization for representation to the value adjustment board
   47  clerk before any petition filed by that person is heard, for 1
   48  year after imposition of such requirement by the value
   49  adjustment board. A power of attorney or written authorization
   50  is valid for 1 assessment year, and a new power of attorney or
   51  written authorization by the taxpayer is required for each
   52  subsequent assessment year. A petition shall also describe the
   53  property by parcel number and shall be filed as follows:
   54         (h) In counties that vote favorably to extend the roll
   55  under s. 197.323(1), a petition may be filed late for good
   56  cause. As used in this paragraph, the term “good cause” means
   57  circumstances beyond the control of the person seeking to file
   58  the petition late. A late-filed petition must be filed within 55
   59  days after the mailing of the notice by the property appraiser.
   60         Section 2. Paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section
   61  194.032, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   62         194.032 Hearing purposes; timetable.—
   63         (2)(a) The clerk of the governing body of the county shall
   64  prepare a schedule of appearances before the board based on
   65  petitions timely filed with him or her. The clerk shall notify
   66  each petitioner of the scheduled time of his or her appearance
   67  at least 25 calendar days before the day of the scheduled
   68  appearance. The notice must indicate whether the petition has
   69  been scheduled to be heard at a particular time or during a
   70  block of time. If the petition has been scheduled to be heard
   71  within a block of time, the beginning and ending of that block
   72  of time must be indicated on the notice; however, as provided in
   73  paragraph (b), a petitioner may not be required to wait for more
   74  than a reasonable time, not to exceed 2 hours, after the
   75  beginning of the block of time. The property appraiser must
   76  provide a copy of the property record card containing
   77  information relevant to the computation of the current
   78  assessment, with confidential information redacted, to the
   79  petitioner upon receipt of the petition from the clerk
   80  regardless of whether the petitioner initiates evidence
   81  exchange, unless the property record card is available online
   82  from the property appraiser, in which case the property
   83  appraiser must notify the petitioner that the property record
   84  card is available online. The petitioner and the property
   85  appraiser may each reschedule the hearing a single time for good
   86  cause. As used in this paragraph, the term “good cause” means
   87  circumstances beyond the control of the person seeking to
   88  reschedule the hearing which reasonably prevent the party from
   89  having adequate representation at the hearing. However, for a
   90  county in which the number of petitions filed exceeds 5,000 in
   91  any year, the term does not include being scheduled for two
   92  separate hearings in different jurisdictions at the same time or
   93  on the same date, unless the hearings involve the same
   94  petitioner or property appraiser and the petitioner agrees to
   95  reschedule the hearing. If the hearing is rescheduled by the
   96  petitioner or the property appraiser, the clerk shall notify the
   97  petitioner of the rescheduled time of his or her appearance at
   98  least 15 calendar days before the day of the rescheduled
   99  appearance, unless this notice is waived by both parties. For
  100  counties in which the number of petitions filed exceeds 5,000 in
  101  any year, before the value adjustment board begins its hearings
  102  for the year, the clerk may request that the property appraiser
  103  and the petitioner identify up to 10 business days each on which
  104  he or she is unavailable for hearing.
  105         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.