Not a solicitor, not a prowler – might just be someone from the King County Assessor’s Office

If you live in east West Seattle, that unfamiliar person who looks to be checking out your residence might just be a King County Assessor’s Office appraiser doing her/his job. This announcement explains:

The Assessor’s Office annually values over 700,000 properties in King County, and physically inspects 1/6th of all properties.

Starting this fall and continuing into Spring of 2016, appraisers from the Assessor’s Office will be conducting physical inspections of properties (existing residences, residences under construction and vacant parcels) in East West Seattle, Georgetown, South Park. Appraisers generally conducts physical inspection from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM four days per week, Monday thru Thursday and are identifiable by their County ID badges.

This annual process allows appraisers to verify and update any property characteristic changes that might have occurred since the last physical inspection. For information on your property, please visit the Assessor’s eReal Property Search at www.kingcounty.gov/assessor

11 Replies to "Not a solicitor, not a prowler - might just be someone from the King County Assessor's Office"

  • LarryB November 13, 2015 (11:40 am)

    Are they allowed to enter yards and such, or are they required to observe from public property such as sidewalks and alleys?

  • Elmer November 13, 2015 (11:54 am)

    Yes – RCW allows entry onto the property.

  • Anne November 13, 2015 (12:18 pm)

    Probably just like the folks who read our electric & gas meters.
    Our electric meter is next to our back door – have noticed sometimes the meter reader will just use binoculars to read it from the alley. Gas meter is on side of house so they need to enter the yard to read it.

  • Joan November 13, 2015 (1:04 pm)

    I did have a visit last week from a very nice woman, and it was lucky I was home. She had incorrect information about my house. She said she would correct it in the database.

  • Mary November 13, 2015 (2:17 pm)

    A question for Joan. Did that lady from the assessors office have a vest, id badge in plain site or some clothing that identified themselves as King County Assessors? It can be disconcerting when people you don’t know are walking through your yard unannounced – if that is the way it happens.

  • Thomas November 13, 2015 (2:39 pm)

    Gas meters are read remotely, just like City Light is fixing to do with the electric meters.

  • anonyme November 13, 2015 (3:03 pm)

    They’d better have proper I.D. The WSB is awesome, but far from adequate notification. My neighbors are instructed to call police immediately if they see anyone in my yard who doesn’t belong there, and vice versa. If I catch someone sneaking around my property, they might wake up with a BIG headache.

    • WSB November 13, 2015 (3:38 pm)

      Anon, if there’s another way you’d like to be notified, please tell the Assessor’s Office. This was a news release sent to all media, and while regional outlets aren’t likely to publish it, we are, so here it is. This was not anything “just” sent to us. We enterprise a ton of news that you won’t see anywhere else but announcements and news releases are not part of it – they’re sent to myriad sources. This also is nothing new – the Assessor’s Office has done this for years if not decades. Every year, as it says, they get to a sixth of the county.

  • anonyme November 13, 2015 (3:51 pm)

    I was not suggesting that the WSB was in any way a sole or ‘official’ source of information on this issue. I was actually paying a complement to the WSB for being the only source to do so – a point that was lost, apparently.

    And yes, I will contact the Assessor’s Office. This practice, without any notification, may have been fine in 1950. That’s no longer the case, and with a burglary next door last week, and an attempted burglary of my own home last month, I don’t take the issue of strangers prowling my property lightly.

  • Matt S. November 14, 2015 (9:41 am)

    I’ll assume I’m the only one that’s more bothered seeing “thru” than a friendly appraiser on the lawn.

  • Steve November 14, 2015 (10:14 pm)

    I saw one going thru the houses last year. He had an I.D. badge. I guess they have the right to go onto any property as needed. If they see a new structure they measure it and add it to the list of improvements. Still, I’d feel better if their cars were marked. They should have a big magnetic sign on their car door.

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