Certified assessment officials must list and assess property as follows:

1.    All real property subject to taxation must be listed and assessed every year with reference to its value, on February first of that year.

2.    An individual property record must be kept by the appropriate assessment official for each parcel of taxable property. The record may be in electronic or paper form and must include identifying information as prescribed by the state supervisor of assessments. Assessors shall prepare the records and provide copies of all property records prepared by the assessor to the county director of tax equalization. The county director of tax equalization shall maintain those records for ten years from the date the records were received from the assessors. A city with an assessor who holds a current certification as a class I assessor under section 57-02-01.1, and which has been determined by the state supervisor of assessments to have enough sales for an adequate sales ratio study, may elect to maintain the records required under this subsection on behalf of the county. A city that makes this election must include these records in a city database of taxable property to be maintained in the office of city assessor for ten years from the assessment date.

3.    Whenever after the first day of February and before the first day of April in any year, it is made to appear to the assessor by the oath of the owner that any building, structure, or other improvement, or tangible personal property, which is listed for taxation for the current year has been destroyed or damaged by fire, flood, tornado, or other natural disaster, the assessor shall investigate the matter and deduct from the valuation of the property of the owner of such destroyed property an amount which in the assessor’s judgment fairly represents such deduction as should be made.