Berkeley County Assessor: Homestead Exemption intake

The exemption is the State's, under Code 11-6B-3: the first twenty thousand dollars of assessed value off the property tax of an owner-occupied homestead for a qualifying owner who is sixty-five or older or certified permanently and totally disabled. The Berkeley County entry point is the Assessor's Office under Larry A. Hess, telephone (304) 267-5051, real estate department (304) 264-1904, whose pages are on theassessor.org. The window and the proof. All new applicants file between July 1 and December 1 of each year. The assessor's homestead page requires the applicant to bring a valid West Virginia driver's license or voter registration card, and for the disability route "a doctor's letter stating that the applicant is 100% permanently and totally disabled, or a letter awarding the applicant their disability status", with the county's own emphasis: "When applying for the Homestead Exemption, please bring a physical letter stating 100% disability. Applications will NOT be accepted without a physical copy." A VA award letter is one of the letters that works - Code 11-6B-4(b)(5) accepts "a written certification signed by the veterans administration certifying that a person is totally and permanently disabled". The residency rule veterans should know. The county pages state only the general two-consecutive-years residency test. The statute itself has a military-service carve-out that neither county page mentions: a person who was a West Virginia resident on entering active duty, kept the state as home of record throughout the service, and returns to buy a homestead on retirement or on separation due to a permanent and total disability "is deemed to satisfy the residency test required by this section". A returning service member refused at the counter should cite Code 11-6B-3(a). The assessor's military page also carries the active-duty vehicle exemption under Executive Order 9-88: one vehicle for a service member whose duty station is outside West Virginia, on presentation of military orders.