King County is investigating an assessor’s office employee accused in a recent lawsuit of offering to help lower a property owner’s land valuations — which would translate to a lower tax bill — if the property owner hired the employee’s private side business.
In a civil complaint filed in March in King County Superior Court and since transferred to federal court, a property owner claims the employee, a commercial appraiser for the King County Department of Assessments, assigned unfairly high values to three parcels in SeaTac and Burien, then in 2021 offered to recommend lower values if the property owner hired the appraiser’s “tax advocacy” company. The lawsuit characterizes the proposal as a “request for a bribe.”
The lawsuit names the appraiser, his company and King County as defendants. The Seattle Times is not naming the appraiser as a King County investigation into the allegations is ongoing. In formal responses filed with the court on Monday, the appraiser and the county denied any liability or wrongdoing. The appraiser did not return requests for comment, but the assessor’s office said in a statement he “unequivocally denies” the allegations.
After The Times sought comment from the assessor’s office about the lawsuit in March, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office hired an investigator to review the allegations. The assessor’s office provided The Times with a written summary of the investigation’s early findings.
In that summary, the assessor’s office said that although the appraiser had formed a Colorado-based tax advocacy company, the review has “uncovered no evidence, other than the unsubstantiated allegations [in the lawsuit]” that he sought a kickback or bribe.
The appraiser continues to work in the assessor’s office, Chief Deputy Assessor Al Dams said.
County policy allows appraisers to take on a second job as long as they notify the department and do not do appraisal work inside King County. Those rules also apply to helping property owners file property tax appeals, Dams said.
The appraiser named in the lawsuit notified the county in January 2020 that he planned to “work/own a business” representing Colorado taxpayers appealing their property valuations, according to a copy of the notice obtained through a public disclosure request. “No appraisal work would be done rather just advocacy/representation on behalf of the taxpayer,” the notice said.
The company was registered in both Colorado and in Washington in 2020, according to state business records. The employee registered the company in Washington “because he was living and working in Washington,” the assessor’s office said in its statement. The company’s registration lapsed in Washington in 2022 and Colorado in 2023 due to failure to file required reports.
Of the assessor’s office’s 214 employees, most of whom work four days a week, 15 have filed notices informing the county of outside work, ranging from working as a real estate agent or landlord to delivering food on UberEats and playing music in a rock band, according to copies of the notices obtained through a public disclosure request. Some employees have filed more than one notice for different types of work. The appraiser named in the lawsuit was the only one to describe tax advocacy work.
King County assesses the value of commercial and residential properties each year. Those values are key to determining the tax bill for a given property. If a property owner believes the county is valuing their property too highly, they can appeal the valuation and present evidence to the county Board of Appeals and Equalization.
If either side is not satisfied with that board’s decision, they can then appeal again to the Washington Board of Tax Appeals. About a quarter of appeals result in a lower property valuation, according to the county.
King County property values shot up at unprecedented rates during the early years of the pandemic, frustrating some property owners with sticker shock on their tax bills. Values have since started to come back down in most areas as the real estate market has cooled.
The value of commercial properties can vary drastically based on the size and use of the property, buildings on the site, zoning, the ability to build on the property if it’s vacant and other factors. In the Burien and SeaTac area, total commercial land values increased about 31% from 2018 to 2021, according to county reports.
The lawsuit, filed by 3rd Ave SW LLC and Jha Family LLC, centers on the values the appraiser assigned to parcels in SeaTac and Burien. Siddharth Jha is affiliated with both LLCs, according to state business records, and is a “senior member of the Jha Family Office,” according to a statement from his…
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