[1]
Editor's Note: See also Ch. 17, Assessment Review.
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954]
For the purpose of making the assessment of the property in the City, the Commission shall appoint, subject to removal, one Assessor and shall provide for his or her compensation.
The Assessor shall possess all the powers vested in, and be charged with all the duties imposed upon assessing officers by the General Laws of the State, except as otherwise provided in this Charter.
All property subject to ad valorem taxation shall be assessed at its fair cash value, subject to review as provided by this Charter, the State law, or City ordinance.
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954; 11-2-2021]
The Board of Review shall consist of three qualified electors, who shall be freeholders of the City, to be appointed by the Commission, and who shall not be connected in any other way with the City Administration. The City Assessor or their designee shall attend the meetings of the Board of Review and the City Clerk shall act as Secretary of said Board. The Board of Review shall have and exercise all the powers and duties at present or which in the future may be possessed by Boards of Review under the General Laws of the State, except as herein otherwise provided. The Board of Review shall review and equalize the assessment roll of the City. A majority of such Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but a less number may adjourn from day to day. They shall have the power and it shall be their duty to examine said assessment roll, and they shall have authority to, and shall correct any errors or deficiencies found therein, either as to the names, valuations, or descriptions; and of their own motion, or on cause shown, may reduce or increase the valuation of any property found on the said roll, and shall add thereto any taxable property in said City that may have been omitted, and shall value the same and shall strike from said roll any property wrongfully thereon, and generally shall perfect said roll in any respect by said Board deemed necessary and proper.
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954]
The Board of Review shall meet on Tuesday following the first Monday in March in the City Hall at 9:00 in the forenoon, and shall elect one of their number as Chairman. The Assessor shall submit to said Board the assessment roll for the current year, and during that day and such following days as the Board continues in session the Board shall review such roll, and make any additions or corrections thereto, as provided by law in reviewing and correcting assessments made by supervisors of townships, not inconsistent herewith and except as in this Charter otherwise provided. Said Board of Review shall also meet in the City Hall on the second Monday in March at 9:00 in the forenoon, of which time and place notice shall be given by the City Clerk at least two weeks prior to the time of said meeting by publishing notice thereof in a newspaper having circulation in the City of Royal Oak, and shall be in session for as many days thereafter, and for at least six hours each day, prior to the first Monday in April, as may be necessary to complete the review. It shall hold at least two evening sessions of not less than two hours each for such review; any person, or persons desiring so to do may examine his, her, or their, assessment on such roll and may show cause, if any exists, why the valuation thereof should be changed; and said Board of Review shall decide the same and their decision shall be final. They shall examine on oath, any person touching the matter of his or her assessment, and the Chairperson or any member of said Board may administer such oath. The Board shall keep a record of its proceedings, and all changes made on said roll, and the amount added to or deducted from the total valuation shall be entered upon such record. The decision of the majority of the members of said Board upon all questions shall govern. The roll as prepared by the City Assessor shall stand as approved and adopted, as the act of the Board of Review, except as changed as herein provided. After the said Board of Review shall have completed the revision of said roll, the Clerk shall endorse and sign a statement upon the roll to the effect that the same is the general assessment roll of the City for the year it has been prepared, as approved by the Board of Review. Such statement may be in the following form:
I hereby certify that the Board of Review of the City of Royal Oak have reviewed, equalized, and corrected the within assessment roll, and have deducted (or added, as the case may be) ______________ dollars from (or to, as the case may be) the valuation of the real estate; and have deducted, (or added, as the case may be) ___________ dollars from (or to, as the case may be) the valuation of the personal property, as made by the City Assessor, and have determined the total valuation of the real estate to be _____________ dollars, and total valuation of the personal property to be _____________ dollars; and the total of both real and personal property to be _____________ dollars, for the year A.D. __________.
Dated:
____________________________
City Clerk
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954]
On or before the first day of July of each year, or as soon thereafter as possible, the City Assessor shall deliver a certified copy of his or her assessment roll on which the City tax has been apportioned and spread, with his or her warrant annexed thereto, to the City Treasurer. Said roll shall be filed in said Treasurer's office as the City Tax Roll.
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954]
The taxes so assessed on the General City Tax Roll together with the school taxes of the School District of the City of Royal Oak shall be due and payable on the first day of July in the year assessed and may be paid during said month of July without penalty or interest: Provided, however, if the assessment roll has not been received by the City Treasurer before the first day of July, then such taxes may be paid without penalty or interest any time within 30 days from the filing of the assessment roll. Thereafter, such taxes, while unpaid, shall be deemed delinquent and shall bear interest at the rate of one-half of one percent per month, or fraction thereof, until return of such taxes to the County Treasurer. Provided, however, that when any person liable for the City and School taxes shall pay one-half thereof on or before the 31st day of July, or the 30th day after the filing of the assessment roll, of the year in which such tax is assessed, he or she shall have the right to do so, and shall have the further right to pay the remainder of such taxes on or before the 31st day of October of said year without payment of any further addition, penalty, or interest; further provided, when the last day specified for payment of taxes without interest or penalty; or when the last day of any month, falls on Sunday or a legal holiday or a day when the Treasurer's Office is officially closed, then such payment may be made without penalty or interest, or without additional interest, as the case may be, on the first day thereafter that the City Treasurer's Office is open for payment of taxes. The City Treasurer shall give to each taxpayer so paying his or her tax an appropriate receipt, showing the amount of his or her tax that is paid and shall make entry of such payment on the proper tax roll. In case the person paying the first one-half of his or her tax on or before the last day such payment may be made without interest or penalty shall fail to pay the remaining one-half tax thereof on or before the 31st day of October of the year in which said tax is assessed, or in case the 31st day of October falls on a Sunday or legal holiday or other day on which the City Hall is officially closed, on the first day thereafter that the Treasurer's Office is open for the receipt of taxes, said remaining one-half tax shall be subject to the interest and penalties provided for in this chapter.
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954]
The City Treasurer shall give notice by publishing in an[1] newspaper published and circulating in said City for one week preceding July 1, which notice shall be sufficient demand for the payment of all taxes on said rolls that payment therein specified may be made to the Treasurer at any time during the month of July without penalty or interest; that if one-half of said taxes are not paid during said month of July and the remaining one-half during the month of October, said taxes or the unpaid balance thereof, shall be deemed delinquent as provided in Section 6 of this chapter, and shall bear interest at the rate of one-half of one per cent per month, or fraction thereof, until the first of March following: Provided, however, that the failure to give the notice specified in this section for the payment of such taxes shall not invalidate the said taxes nor relieve the persons or property assessed from the penalty herein specified; Further, provided, if the certified assessment roll has not been received by the Treasurer by July 1, or if for other reason the Treasurer is unable to receive payment of taxes on that date, the Treasurer shall give notice of the first date the Treasurer's Office will be open for the payment of taxes and the interest above specified shall not begin until 30 days from such date.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original.
[Amended and adopted 6-16-1930]
The taxes so assessed and the school taxes shall become at once a debt to the City from the persons to whom they are assessed, and the amounts assessed on any real property or interest therein shall, on the first day of July in the year assessed become a lien on such real property and the lien for such amounts and for all interest charges and penalties thereon shall continue until payment thereof. All personal taxes shall also be a lien on all personal property of the persons assessed for the same from and after the first day of July in the year assessed and shall take precedence over any sale, assignment, or chattel mortgage, levy, or other lien on said personal property executed or made after said first day of July, except for such property as actually sold in the regular course of trade at wholesale or retail.
[Amended and adopted 11-2-1954]
The City Assessor shall keep the original assessment roll in his or her office until time for presentation thereof to the Board of Supervisors of Oakland County for equalization and shall then present it to said Board, which roll, after equalization by said Board, shall be the assessment roll of the City for all assessment purposes whatsoever except the levying of taxes to be collected in the month of July, as herein provided.
[Amended and adopted 6-16-1930]
On the first day of November, the City Assessor shall apportion and spread upon the tax rolls all State and County taxes, certified to him or her by the Board of Supervisors, or otherwise, and such other taxes as are legally required to be spread on the rolls.
Within 30 days after the first day of November, the City Assessor shall deliver a certified copy of the assessment roll to the City Treasurer to be filed in his or her office, to which roll shall be annexed a warrant signed by the City Assessor and directed to the Treasurer, and be in all other respects as near as may be as warrants of township treasurers for the collection of state, county, and township taxes.
Upon receiving said tax roll as herein provided, the Treasurer shall give notice to the taxpayers of the City that such rolls have been delivered to him or her, and that the taxes therein levied can be paid to him or her at his or her office at any time from the 10th day of December to and including the 10th day of January next ensuing without any charge for collection, but that four-percent collection fee will be charged and collected upon all taxes remaining unpaid after the 10th day of January. Said notice shall be given by publishing the same six successive times in a newspaper published in said City. But any defect in said notice, or any omission to comply with the provisions of this section shall not invalidate said tax roll or any measure, thereafter to be taken, to enforce collection of the taxes thereon.
[Amended and adopted 4-30-1934]
For the collection of all taxes remaining unpaid on the general tax roll after the 31st day of July and the 10th day of January of each year, except as to such taxpayers as pay one-half of the City and School taxes in July and the remaining one-half in October, and as to such persons paying the first one-half in July but failing to pay the second one-half in October, after the 31st day of October on the unpaid second one-half of such taxes the Treasurer shall proceed in the same manner as township treasurers are required by law to do for the collection of taxes in townships and shall for that purpose have all the power and authority conferred by law upon township treasurers for such purposes, and it is hereby made mandatory upon the Treasurer to exhaust all legal remedies for the collection of unpaid personal taxes before the return thereof.
[Amended and adopted 7-8-1938]
The Treasurer shall, within 10 days after the expiration of the time limited in his or her warrant, or in case of extension of time for collecting such taxes within 10 days after such has expired, pay over to the Treasurer of the Board of Education the amount which by law is payable to him or her, and on the first day of March or within 10 days thereafter shall pay to the County Treasurer the balance which by law is payable to him or her and shall make his or her returns to the County Treasurer of Oakland County, Michigan, as hereinafter specified: On the 15th day of August, 1938, or within 10 days thereafter, all unpaid delinquent 1936 City and School taxes with the accrued fees and interest thereon; on the 15th day of September 1938, or within 10 days thereafter, all unpaid delinquent 1937 City and School taxes with the accrued fees and interest thereon; on the first day of March 1939, or within 10 days thereafter, all unpaid City and School taxes with the accrued interest thereon, shall be returned with the County and other taxes. Annually thereafter all such taxes shall be returned in the same manner. After their return, City and School taxes shall be collected and handled as other taxes and shall be governed in all things by the provisions of the general tax laws of the State, except as otherwise provided in this Charter.
Any person owning an undivided share or other part or parcel of real property, assessed in one description, may pay on the part thus owned by paying an amount having the same relation to the whole tax as the part on which payment is made, has to the whole parcel. The person making such payment shall accurately describe the part or share on which he or she makes payment and the receipt given and the record of the receiving officers shall show such description and by whom paid; and in case of the sale of the remaining part, or share, for non-payment of taxes, he or she may purchase the same in like manner as any disinterested person could. These provisions shall include all taxes that may be assessed against real property, including special assessments.
The fees and penalties for the collection of all taxes provided for by this Charter, or the General Laws of the State, shall belong to the City and shall be paid by said Treasurer into the City Treasury.