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Larimer County Fire/Flood Damage - Property Assessment Information

Appraisers from the assessor's office have looked at nearly all of the properties damaged or destroyed in the High Park fire in central Larimer County, the Woodland Heights fire in Estes Park, and the other fires and floods that occurred in 2012. The information we have gathered will be used to determine adjustments for properties damaged or destroyed in these recent fires and floods. Some of those adjustments affect 2012 property taxes payable in 2013. Those and other adjustments will affect 2013 property taxes payable in 2014 and property taxes assessed in upcoming years, too.

Colorado property tax law provides for the proration of the value of structures destroyed or demolished during a tax year. For example, the homes and cabins destroyed in the fires/floods will be assessed for approximately five months as they were before the fire and for approximately seven months as they are now in their post-fire/flood condition. That proration will affect the 2012 property taxes, payable in 2013, on those properties. Recent legislation also allows these properties to maintain a residential assessment rate on the property for the following year and potentially subsequent years.

Colorado property tax law does not provide for proration of the value of vacant land in the burn/flood areas for tax year 2012.

This year is a biennial reappraisal year for all real property in Larimer County and all of Colorado, so vacant land in the fire area will be reappraised then and those reappraisal values will be the basis for 2013 property taxes payable in 2014. While we don't know at this time what valuation adjustments will be made for 2013, we will take into account the impact the fires and floods had on the value of all affected properties.

The prorated values of properties on which structures were destroyed in the fires/floods will be reflected in the 2012 property tax bills that will be mailed out by the treasurer's office and are available online at http://larimer.org/treasurer/. The reappraised value of all properties in the county, including those in the fire and flood areas, will be shown on the 2013 notices of valuation that the assessor will send out on the first of May this year

As always, property owners with questions and concerns should contact our office directly.

200 W. Oak Street
Suite 2000
Fort Collins, CO 80521
Mailing address:
PO BOX 1190
Fort Collins, CO 80522
(970) 498-7050
or e-mail