Pender County extends appeals filing deadline to Oct. 1 as state lawyers warn suspension of 2026 reappraisal likely unlawful

The Pender County Board of Commissioners voted to extend the deadline for filing appeals of the 2026 reappraisal to Oct. 1, a move intended to give residents more time after weeks of public concern about inconsistent parcel values and large assessed-value increases.

The action followed legal guidance brought to the meeting by the county’s outside advisers and by the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Steven Pelfrey, general counsel for the Department of Revenue’s Local Government Division, told the board that the problem is not simply an explicit prohibition but a lack of statutory authority to rescind or suspend a reappraisal once schedule values have been adopted: “It’s not that there’s a law that says you you cannot do this. It’s that there is not a law that says you can,”…