Lawrence County homeowners have two more weeks to file a complaint if they disagree with the recent re-evaluation of their property.

Last month property owners received new evaluations from a state-mandated review required every six years to come up with new valuations. There were 55,389 parcels appraised this time with appraisals at $870,047,530. It is that figure on which property taxes are calculated.

Appraisal Resource Co. conducted the appraisals that showed an increase in the valuations of 10.18 percent over the triennial update that was done with statistical analysis. That update was the basis of the 2010 property taxes.

Appraisals are categorized as residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial, public utility-real property, public utility-personal property and mineral rights.

The largest percentage increases were for residential parcels with a 9 percent change; commercial at 14 percent; agricultural at 15 percent; and public utilities personal property at 16 percent. Public utility personal property is an appraisal the state provides to the counties and takes in such infrastructure as gas lines and cell phone towers.

Now homeowners have a chance to weigh in on whether they agree with the new figures or not by filing a complaint with the county board of review, made up of the auditor, treasurer and county commission president.

The deadline to file the written complaint is 4 p.m. March 31 and the form can be found on the auditor’s website or at the auditor’s office. The homeowner has to give his opinion of the value of the property and his reasoning.

“He can’t say the value is too high,” Chris Kline, deputy auditor, said.

Reasoning for a lower rate can range from a comparable house selling for less or if the homeowner has had an appraisal from a bank.

Right now the auditor’s office has received 179 complaints about the new evaluations.

“We are really happy with the response,” Kline said. “Last year before we had a change we had 300 responses.”

After a complaint is made, the appraisal company will go out and review the property to see if there are obvious errors.

“If there are errors, we will make corrections and send it back to the people,” Kline said.

If the homeowner is satisfied with the new amount, the auditor’s office will make the change.

“If they are not, they will go ahead and have a hearing before the board,” he said.

Those hearings are expected to be held mid summer.

Residential property owners can represent themselves at the hearing. However if a corporation is making a complaint, they must have to have legal representation.