A new Web site will allow for faster, easier searches of Fayette County properties, officials with the county's property revaluation project said.
The new site was expected to be up and running today.
Property owners will be able to search for properties sold during the past six months to five years. Residents can search properties by sale amount, square footage, building style, number of stories and date of construction.
"The assessment office pushed to make this type of search available as quickly as possible," said James A. Hercik, Fayette County's chief assessor. "The Web site developer has been working on this update for several months and may still make some changes, but we asked them to provide this feature immediately."
Fayette County is listing new values on 78,000 properties. The new assessments will be applied to the 2003 tax rolls.
The last assessment was performed in 1958. Hercik estimates that more than half the county's properties are not properly assessed. Cost of the project is estimated at $3 million.
Property owners who visit the Web site will have several options for searching records: owner name, address, parcel ID and sales criteria. An advanced option may be added later to include additional information.
The Web address is www.fayetteproperty.org. Property owners without computers may seek assistance from family members, public libraries and community centers with Internet access. They also may call the public information office at 724-434-6025 or use the public access computer in the Fayette County Assessment Office at the county courthouse.
