City of Wilmington Announces Additional Efforts to Address Inaccurate Property Assessments

WILMINGTON - Mayor John Carney and members of City Council announced that the City of Wilmington will issue a request for proposal to conduct interior assessments in neighborhoods that have seen higher-than-average increases in property tax bills. This program seeks to improve the accuracy of the recent property tax assessment conducted by Tyler Technologies, Inc.

Earlier this year, Mayor Carney announced interim measures to lessen the impact of the property reassessment. In the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, the City of Wilmington bifurcated residential and commercial rates and expanded the senior and disabled property tax exemption.

This announcement follows months of public concern regarding the county-wide property reassessments conducted by Tyler Technologies. This concern was validated by the final Mass Appraisal Report [wilmingtonde.us9.list-manage.com] issued by Tyler Technologies earlier this year, which revealed that data collected in the City of Wilmington fell outside of acceptable industry standards. The same report attributed those statistical anomalies to a lack of interior assessment data, which can improve the accuracy of assessments in dense urban environments.

"Wilmington faces unique challenges when it comes to reassessment. While other municipalities are helping their residents adjust to increased tax bills, we're still working to ensure that values are accurate and fair," said Mayor John Carney. "We're committed to getting this right and to ensuring that property owners can have confidence in this process moving forward."

The City of Wilmington plans to contract a third-party, non-governmental organization to conduct a sampling of interior assessments in neighborhoods experiencing significant increases in property assessments - many of which are predominantly low-income. This voluntary program will focus on those specific areas and will rely heavily on the cooperation of property owners.

To protect residents' privacy and encourage participation, the third-party entity will not report any code violations to the City. Their role will be strictly limited to documenting general interior conditions that affect property values. Mayor Carney acknowledged that some residents may be hesitant to allow assessors access to their property and assured the public that participants will not face penalties for any violations that may be observed.

The primary goal of the initiative is to gather accurate data on interior conditions to help update and refine property valuations. It will also evaluate the methodology used to conduct commercial property reassessments.

The City of Wilmington will also assist low-income homeowners with filing appeals for the upcoming cycle by establishing a grant program to fund the private preparation of professional appraisal reports in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the New Castle County Board of Assessments.

The City's new approach will require a budget amendment to fund the program. The budget ordinance is expected to be introduced at City Council on October 2, 2025.

Additional conversations on short-term and long-term solutions will continue in Dover on September 30, at a convening of the General Assembly's Joint Property Reassessment Committee.

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