Re-engineered Property Valuation Notice Program

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The King County Assessor has re-engineered its annual property revaluation notice program to increase efficiency, improve customer service, and save money. The King County Assessor is required to send property valuation notices to every property owner in King County annually, totaling nearly 740,000 notices sent. This has significant postage, printing, and staffing costs. Just reducing the size of the property valuation notice alone saved more than $110,000 annually on postage. The re-engineering of the revaluation notice program involved four primary elements: • Reducing the size of the valuation notice by 50 percent, to postcard size, to cut postage costs. Reducing the size of the valuation notice also cut paper costs by 50 percent. • For property owners with multiple parcels, print these accounts on full-sheet notices and mail them in an envelope to increase customer service and cut postage costs. • Improving the process for producing and mailing the cards to remove non-value-added steps, such as unnecessary shipping and handling. • Introducing an electronic property valuation notice that will significantly reduce the need and cost for printing and postage over time. Electronic property valuation notices are posted to a secure website and the property owner is notified by email when the evaluations are posted. Overall, this has been an extremely successful program. It has proven itself to be very efficient and saves money for the county.