A Summit County property owner is suing the county assessor over claims that the assessed value of his property did not reflect the true value of the property.

Todd Ruelle, the owner of property in the Peak 7 neighborhood in unincorporated Breckenridge, claims in a complaint filed in Summit County court in October that he received notice in 2023 that the valuation of his property had changed from $201,000 to about $576,000.

That equated to a $2,048 tax bill based on local residential property taxes, with that estimate reflecting a “residential” characterization of the property, according to the complaint. Ruelle states in court documents that he filed a timely appeal to the assessor and to the Board of Equalization, both of which were denied. 

Then in January this year, Ruelle received a property tax bill for the same property for just under $8,000, according to the complaint. While the assessed value of the property did not change, the assessor changed the characterization of the property from residential to “vacant,” the complaint states. Ruelle claims in court documents that he was not informed of the change and the county assessor denied his request to have the reason in writing, in violation of law.

The lawsuit, which names Summit County Assessor Lisa Eurich and the Summit County government as defendants, seeks a court order to resolve the assessing dispute in Ruelle’s favor, according to court documents.

This is not the first lawsuit against the county government that Ruelle has been involved with. 

Last year, Ruelle was among a group of homeowners who sued the Summit Board of County Commissioners in federal court over short-term rental regulations. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit, but earlier this year Ruelle and other Summit County homeowners took their claims against the county’s short-term rental regulations to state court, where the case is ongoing.

The Summit County government declined to comment on the lawsuit.