Court ruling favors the Pickens County assessor

A ruling by an administrative law court upholds an assessment applied to a Pickens County property sold at a foreclosure auction. The state Department of Revenue announces the court ruling favors the Pickens County tax assessor who argued that the fair market value of the property was $1.2 million based on comparable sales as of December 31, 2012. But the property buyer, Curtis Helms, maintained that the value should be $477 thousand he paid at the auction sale or a general value of $600 thousand. The Department of Revenue announcement states: “Because Mr. Helms was unable to present any evidence to refute the value established by the assessor’s accepted appraisal methods, the court upheld the assessor’s value of $1,200,000.”