June 20, 2013

To: Statutory Assessors

The Provide Assessment Data system (PAD) is open to enter 2013 sales information.

PAD Procedures & Codes:

1. Validate all sales first
   • Determine if the sale is an arm's-length transaction through inspection in the field, interviews, and questionnaires.
   • Review foreclosure related sales carefully - sales by financial institutions may be arm's-length.
   • Use the correct reject codes when rejecting a sale. Reject codes are separated into two categories: non arm's-length (codes 11-59) and ratio reject (codes 71-79).
     • Codes ending in a "9" should be used only when no other reject code reason fits the criteria for rejecting the sale. In these cases, a reason for rejecting must be included in the comment field.
     • See pages 18-27 of the PAD manual (PDF) for explanations of the codes.
     • The comments field can also be used to provide unique information about the sale, e.g. frac sand.
2. Provide assessment data
   • For 2013 sales, use the January 1, 2013 assessment, after adjournment of the 2013 Board of Review.
   • Provide the assessments for all parcels that sold.
   • Include the assessment for any improvements for sales with improvements.
3. Provide property attributes
   • Record the status of the attribute data at the time of sale.
   • The required attribute data for sales follows the minimum requirements from Chapter 5 of the Wisconsin Property Assessment Manual (PDF).

2012 Sales:

• Sales that were not available in PAD before March 31, 2013 are now available.
• Indicate if these sales are useable or rejected for arms-length.
• If useable for arms-length and the 2012 conveyance date is correct, reject the sale for ratio purposes using reject code 78 (prior year's sale). If the conveyance date is incorrect (the sale was conveyed during 2013) and the sale is useable for ratio, enter the corrected date in the "comments" field.

Split Parcels:

• Split parcel sales can be arm's length transactions.
• All split parcel sales must be rejected for DOR ratio analysis using ratio reject code 71.
  • The legal description on the assessment roll does will not match the legal description on the RETR.
  • The sales will not have separate assessments for the parcels.

Contact your Equalization District Office:

• If a sale is coded to the wrong municipality.
• If a sale has been rejected and is discovered to be useable.

Electronic File Transfer:

• The current xml file layout is available for software providers who incorporate the PAD data for electronic file transfer to DOR.
• Do not send us the files until your submission includes all of the required parcel attribute data.

Please remember – PAD does not provide a complete list of sales.

• Sales that have been automatically rejected based on information provided on the RETR are not included.
• Examples: gifted property, exempt from fee, partial interest sales
• Use the eRETR site to review or download a complete list of sales within a municipality.

Thank you.

Last updated June 21, 2013