’Flip the Script’ bill would give county auditors authority to decide valid sales for revaluations, sponsors say

Amended House Bill 124, nicknamed "Flip the Script," would designate county auditors as the authority to determine which property sales count as valid arm's-length transactions for revaluation purposes, joint sponsors Representative Hall and Representative Thomas told the Senate Local Government Committee at a first hearing.

Representative Hall said the bill "would empower our locally elected county auditors" and argued that county auditors and their staff are better positioned to identify non-arm's-length transfers such as family sales, transfers involving personal property (he gave the example of a boat on a Lake Erie property), and wholesale flips that substantially change a home's character. "Local…