Request By:
Mr. Robert W. Thompson
Property Valuation Administrator
Jessamine County Courthouse
First Floor
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By Alex W. Rose, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter to the Attorney General you ask three questions:
(1) Does a Property Valuation Administrator (hereinafter PVA) have legal authority to inspect real property in his county?
(2) Can a PVA measure a property owner's house from the outside without permission from the owner?
(3) If the property owner is not at home at the time, does this affect the PVA's rights?
KRS 132.450 states, in pertinent part, as follows:
"The property valuation administrator shall make every effort, through visits with the taxpayer, personal inspection of the property, from records, from his own knowledge, from information in property schedules, and from such other evidence as he may be able to obtain, to locate, identify and assess property."
While, as we stated in OAG 66-323, this statute does not require the PVA to actually inspect the property, it certainly provides the PVA with authority to do so. KRS 132.690, however, requires the PVA to physically examine all property at least once every two years. Therefore, in answer to your first question, the PVA does have authority to inspect real property in the county.
Your second question involves the authority of the PVA to measure a property owner's house from the outside without permission from the property owner. In order to value a house properly, certain information must be known about that house. This information includes the dimensions of the house, normally obtained by measuring the house from the outside. Since the PVA is authorized to inspect property and is required to assess property (KRS 132.450), entry onto the property in order to measure it from the exterior is authorized, such entry being required to be reasonable. Thus, such authorized entry does not constitute trespass.
Montgomery v. Reorganized School District, Mo., 339 S.W.2d 831 (1960).
This authorized entry also extends to your third question of whether the PVA's right of entry is affected by the fact that the owner is not at home. Entry to the interior is also authorized. If, however, the property owner is not at home or refuses entry, the PVA must resort to an administrative search warrant. Such a warrant must be obtained from a judge.