photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World File Photo

The Douglas County Courthouse is pictured in September 2018.

Thousands of Douglas County property owners have received incorrect change of value notices from the appraiser’s office, requiring about 13% of the notices to be re-sent.

The Douglas County Appraiser’s Office mailed the 2021 change of value notices on Friday, Feb. 26, according to a county news release. County Appraiser Steven Miles told the Journal-World on Thursday that the office started getting calls on Monday that alerted it to the errors, which he said the office soon determined were due to a printing error.

Miles said the printing error resulted in property owners receiving notices that had their name and address on them but that listed property value information for another location. Miles said that about 5,500 to 5,600 properties, mostly in southeastern Douglas County, were affected by the error, and that corrected notices would be mailed out in the next few days.

“We apologize for the issue and appreciate those who contacted us,” Miles said in the news release. “Everyone has been very patient and understanding.”

The appraiser’s office mailed out about 41,100 notices total, according to Miles, meaning that errors occurred on about 13% of them. After being alerted to the issue Monday, the news release states, the appraiser’s office by Tuesday evening had located “where a printing error occurred in the preparation and mailing” of the notices.

When asked by the Journal-World what caused the printing error, Miles declined to provide details, but said that the issue had been addressed.

“We’ve identified the problem, and we’ve corrected it,” Miles said.

If property owners disagree with the change of value determined by the appraiser’s office, the deadline to appeal is March 30, and the deadline will not change for those who receive revised notices. Miles said that since all real estate values were available online through the Douglas County website on or before March 1, the deadline to file for an appeal will remain March 30 at 5 p.m. Appeals that are mailed must be postmarked by midnight on March 30.

If residents have questions, they can email smiles@douglascountyks.org or call the Appraiser’s Office at 832-5133, according to the release.