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.