City reappraised our house up 31% !
OhioGuy
at half the appraised values right now, our city just sent out letters
telling us that they have reappraised our homes up more than 31% for tax
purposes!
The letter gives us 20 days to request a discussion of the new
appraisal. We can supposedly set up a meeting of this type if we have
some form of proof to show that the value is not as they say.
The city outsourced this to an appraisal firm, and I've had a heck of
a time getting in touch with them. I called 10 times yesterday, and
there was no way to wait to talk to anyone. Every time, it told me that
all agents were busy. I tried numerous choices, and always got hung up
on. Finally, the tenth time, for some reason I was able to leave a
message. However, I am not at all confident that they will call back,
or that anyone will check the message. It almost seems like they are
making it very difficult to set up the appointment, or even to leave a
message, so that they can just say it is past the 20 days.
I think I'm going to look up the contact info for the company and
send a certified letter. Whatever the appraisal is set at will be what
we pay taxes on for the next 6 years, so it may be worth it even if we
only save $100 a year.
Anyone have any experience in this? How can I "prove" that they have
appraised it up too high? Do I just need to get it appraised several
times, and hope that the appraisals come out on the low end? What would
you do in a situation like this, to try to ensure that they lower their
reappraisal value down somewhat?
Thanks!
Vic Smith
In my area (Cook County, IL) I hire the same tax protest lawyer every
three year assessment.
He charges $50 and half the first years savings.
Seems to work well, and no hassle for me.
--Vic
Zuke
> Despite the fact that homes in our area are lucky if they get offers at
> half the appraised values right now, our city just sent out letters telling
> us that they have reappraised our homes up more than 31% for tax purposes!
This is a sweet way for municipalities to raise taxes without
anybody having to vote on it. Now that values have dropped I wonder
how quick they are going to be to reappraise. How many of us,
today, would sell our house for the appraised value? In the old
days appraisals seem to be about half of what the selling value was
but that has changed, at least in our area, over the past 20 years.
Why deal with the company? Deal with the tax commissioner. Why does
it matter to you that he farmed it out. He's the one with the civic
duty. Call his office directly and put the screws to him.
George
Same process where I live. They outsourced it to Century 21. They
decided all of the values based on 1/1/08. Our taxes will go up over 45%
starting 1/1/2009. They pretty much told you what you need to do. You
need to schedule the informal hearing and offer some clear defense with
a sound basis (gross computational error etc) or hire a licensed
appraiser. If you can't offer some argument then you will pay.
The only real thing to do is what everyone talks about but does nothing
about and throw *all* of the current politicians under the bus, have
strict term limits and demand accountability.
clams_casino
> Despite the fact that homes in our area are lucky if they get offers
> at half the appraised values right now, our city just sent out letters
> telling us that they have reappraised our homes up more than 31% for
> tax purposes!
Ours were appraised at the 2006 peak. Sales have typically been 10-15%
below those appraisals. It'll be intereesting to see if they drop our
appraisals 15% next year and increase the tax rate accordingly (ours are
statistically reevaluated each three years with an in-person appraisal
each ten years..
>
> The letter gives us 20 days to request a discussion of the new
> appraisal. We can supposedly set up a meeting of this type if we have
> some form of proof to show that the value is not as they say.
Typically, they do not discuss such over the phone. More typically,
you'll likely need to set up an appointment and provided some kind of
proof. In my case, they over estimated the square footage of our home
by 15% due to miscategorizing the style in our last two tax appraisals.
They corrected the square footage after sending someone out the first
time, but adjusted in on the spot the second time, as they recalled the
situation from three years prior.
>
> The city outsourced this to an appraisal firm, and I've had a heck
> of a time getting in touch with them. I called 10 times yesterday,
> and there was no way to wait to talk to anyone. Every time, it told
> me that all agents were busy. I tried numerous choices, and always
> got hung up on. Finally, the tenth time, for some reason I was able
> to leave a message. However, I am not at all confident that they will
> call back, or that anyone will check the message. It almost seems
> like they are making it very difficult to set up the appointment, or
> even to leave a message, so that they can just say it is past the 20
> days.
>
> I think I'm going to look up the contact info for the company and
> send a certified letter. Whatever the appraisal is set at will be
> what we pay taxes on for the next 6 years, so it may be worth it even
> if we only save $100 a year.
>
> Anyone have any experience in this? How can I "prove" that they
> have appraised it up too high? Do I just need to get it appraised
> several times, and hope that the appraisals come out on the low end?
> What would you do in a situation like this, to try to ensure that they
> lower their reappraisal value down somewhat?
>
> Thanks!
I've heard of cases where the value was adjusted down if the home
recently sold at a lower price, but only to see an inflated value during
the next evaluation. The response is typically that the appraisal is
for relative tax value only and is not intended to be a selling price.
Unless you can find errors in the appraisal (square footage, etc), it
will be an uphill battle. Having several professional appraisals may
help, but at $150 each, it's a gamble if they will be of any value.
I'm sure this is / will be a growing problem / aggravation all over the
country.
tmc...@searchmachine.com
Same thing happened to a friend of mine a few years ago. He
immediately put a "for sale" sign in front of his house and advertised
it all over the place. He used the new appraisal figure as the asking
price ($275k). He kept it listed for three months, and the highest
offer he received was $180k. He took the house off the market and put
in his appraisal grievance paperwork on the last day to file, and was
able to get the new appraisal down to $180k. The town grumbled, but
hey, a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. This
technique certainly isn't for everyone, but my friend would have been
quite happy to sell the house if he'd been offered $275k, or even
close.
phil scott
thats because the cities are going bankrupt and ppty tax is the
primary source of revenue in
the face of declining sales tax..
did you know that police and firement costs are oten 80%of a cities
budget? and that half of
that is pensions.... In calif those pensions run 120,000 dolars a year
or more a fter tricks are
used to spike them, since 2000.... not prior... (tax payers retrre at
a 5th of that).
Phil scott
James
One of my work friends owns a very very nice house, but not a mansion,
in an area full of manions and celebraties. He goes through this every
couple of years. He always hires a professional to fight it and has
never lost. His savings are very large - his house is usually
overvalued by 300,000$ or more.
James
Al Bundy
Forget about appraisals. Tax people generally look at comparable sales
in the area, hopefully on your block. A comparable is a recent sale of
a home with similar characteristics as yours. Most real estate
agencies can provide this information to you. They have it at their
fingertips and can print it out. In my area they make the owner apply
every year for a correction to their over estimate of value. You are
lucky if it lasts six years. All the more reason for you to go for it.
max
make sure you read and understand their appraisal practice for your
city. It is written down, and probably on the assessors website.
Again: read their procedure -- what you think they are doing is
virtually guarenteed not to be what they actually are doing.
Many communities assess and evaluate homes on a rolling-average of three
years or so. It's quite possible to be on the wrong side of the curve
with these things, esp now in a melting market, but find yourself to be
receiving exactly the bill you're supposed to get.
IOW, there's a fair chance that you're screwed. sorry. You need to
find out what the rules are. Then, if you think there's a chance
you're in the right, _hire_ a local real estate tax attorney to go to
bat for you.
--
This signature can be appended to your outgoing mesages. Many people include in
their signatures contact information, and perhaps a joke or quotation.
JonquilJan
sold some land, the appraised values had only been going up for the past 27
years. One instance, appraiser came through and said the two small barns on
my property across the road had never been added to the value. Interesting
because they had been there for decades before I purchased the property.
Reappraisal dropped the value 45%. My school taxes this year were $3.78 -=
and yes there is a decimal point in there. And that was for the library.
and I have the state STAR exemption (low income) and also get more exemption
for my age (69).
At least one advantage of being old and poor.
JonquilJan
Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying
h
"JonquilJan" <war...@imcnet.net> wrote in message
news:48dbad17$0$13725$38ce...@news.westelcom.com...
> My property/home was reappraised last year. Other than times when I had
> sold some land, the appraised values had only been going up for the past
> 27
> years. One instance, appraiser came through and said the two small barns
> on
> my property across the road had never been added to the value.
> Interesting
> because they had been there for decades before I purchased the property.
>
> Reappraisal dropped the value 45%. My school taxes this year were
> $3.78 -=
> and yes there is a decimal point in there. And that was for the library.
> and I have the state STAR exemption (low income) and also get more
> exemption
> for my age (69).
>
> At least one advantage of being old and poor.
>
> JonquilJan
>
house is assessed (full-value) for $150k, and between school and property
taxes I'm paying almost $5k a year. Seems excessively high, especially since
I'm in the boonies with virtually no services. There's no garbage pickup, no
town dump (so you have to hire a garbage service), no sewers, no gas lines,
although we did finally get water lines (for which we pay extra), and a
non-paid all volunteer fire/rescue dept. What exactly do they need all that
money for?
George Grapman
property straddles two town and it on a steep hill. The house is in one
town and the hill in another. It is unsafe to build anything on the hill
so it acts as an open space buffer yet the town containing that area
based their assessment on the value of the parcel where the house is.
After two years of fighting the owner invited the officials to view
the property in person and after a visit they agreed that she had been
overcharged.
>
>
George
Our county was just reassessed by the "world renowned" century 21 and
there are numerous instances like that. For example my neighbor owns a
very irregular adjoining property that according to zoning isn't
suitable for any building yet they valued it as a standard building lot.
Or my buddy had to buy a adjoining property to place a sand mound system
because no place on his property was suitable. Sand mounds are really
common and distinctive because of the obvious mound and vent pipes but
they decided that it too was a building lot.
JonquilJan
> > Reappraisal dropped the value 45%. My school taxes this year were
> > $3.78 -=
> > and yes there is a decimal point in there. And that was for the
library.
> > and I have the state STAR exemption (low income) and also get more
> > exemption
> > for my age (69).
> >
> > At least one advantage of being old and poor.
> >
> > JonquilJan
> >
> Wow! I know you're in upstate NY too, but I wish I lived in your county.
My
> house is assessed (full-value) for $150k, and between school and property
> taxes I'm paying almost $5k a year. Seems excessively high, especially
since
> I'm in the boonies with virtually no services. There's no garbage pickup,
no
> town dump (so you have to hire a garbage service), no sewers, no gas
lines,
> although we did finally get water lines (for which we pay extra), and a
> non-paid all volunteer fire/rescue dept. What exactly do they need all
that
> money for?
>
>
I'm in the boonies as well. I take my stuff to the town dump (7 miles) but
no sewers, no gas lines, no water lines - fire service is volunteer (only 1
mile away). But I am about as far away from the town barn as possible - and
they do keep the roads very clear in the winter - and when trees come down
(twice this year so far) they are there within an hour after the storm
clearing the road. The cost I posted was for school taxes. (Good Schools -
South Jefferson district) Waiting for county/town taxes.
I live in southern Jefferson County.
George Grapman
By the way, this person also has two easements,one over private
property ( a hotel) and the other over public land (a public works
storage area) to access her house.
The Real Bev
> Same process where I live. They outsourced it to Century 21. They
> decided all of the values based on 1/1/08. Our taxes will go up over 45%
> starting 1/1/2009. They pretty much told you what you need to do. You
> need to schedule the informal hearing and offer some clear defense with
> a sound basis (gross computational error etc) or hire a licensed
> appraiser. If you can't offer some argument then you will pay.
A friend who moved to New York told us about the "Welcome Stranger" tax.
When you bought a house the assessment was something ridiculous
which, if you didn't protest, you paid for the rest of your life or
until you moved; if you protested it was immediately decreased.
> The only real thing to do is what everyone talks about but does nothing
> about and throw *all* of the current politicians under the bus, have
> strict term limits and demand accountability.
Or copy California's Proposition 13, designed to severely limit
increases unless the property changes hands. The only way to keep them
from wasting our tax money is to keep them from collecting it.
--
Cheers,
Bev
==================================================================
"America is at an awkward stage: it is too late to work within the
system, but it is too early to shoot the bastards." -Claire Wolfe
phil scott
>
> - Show quoted text -
study figures on population relative to money spent on govt and you
will see govt bloat is in the
80% range.... the govt figures though are carefully hidden, and not
tabulated except for their interert.
getting the actual figurs is possible though, especially at the local
level... 755 or more goes for
police and fire by the way in most cases.... iwth those retiring at
age 51 if they started at age 21...with 150,000 dollars a year
or more in many cases (chiefs at a quarter of a million, vested in
many cases affer just 2 years, so they quit and revest with
another city)....
city of Vallejo calif just went bankrupt citing these figures... you
should be able to find the news reports.
Phil scott
Lou
> George wrote:
>
>> Same process where I live. They outsourced it to Century 21. They
>> decided all of the values based on 1/1/08. Our taxes will go up over
>> 45% starting 1/1/2009. They pretty much told you what you need to do.
>> You need to schedule the informal hearing and offer some clear defense
>> with a sound basis (gross computational error etc) or hire a licensed
>> appraiser. If you can't offer some argument then you will pay.
>
> A friend who moved to New York told us about the "Welcome Stranger" tax.
> When you bought a house the assessment was something ridiculous
> which, if you didn't protest, you paid for the rest of your life or
> until you moved; if you protested it was immediately decreased.
>
>> The only real thing to do is what everyone talks about but does
>> nothing about and throw *all* of the current politicians under the
>> bus, have strict term limits and demand accountability.
>
> Or copy California's Proposition 13, designed to severely limit
> increases unless the property changes hands. The only way to keep them
> from wasting our tax money is to keep them from collecting it.
>
the result just doesn't seem right to me. Two homeowners with identical
houses on the same street can end up paying hugely different tax amounts.
The Real Bev
If you don't move, your taxes stay low. The disadvantage is that if you
move into a house exactly like your own your taxes will multiply
significantly. The alternative is getting your taxes raised whenever
the government thinks it wants to spend more money.
Government employees are unionized. The unions have wiped out our
manufacturing industries, which fold if they're unable to make a profit.
Not the same for government -- "management" just has to raise taxes
and they get to jail us if we don't pay.
If our "elected" officials were capable of NOT wasting money there would
be plenty. Our local school board is planning on floating a $350million
bond offering to repair and update the local schools. The school
population is declining, schools SHOULD be closed (they spent
significant money on repair and landscaping of a school that was closed
the following year), and they're asking for money to (among other
things) update the air conditioning in the high school gym and add a
teachers' lounge.
I've got a feeling that if they contemplated just fixing the toilets,
repairing the roofs, making the phones work, etc. the total cost would
be considerably less; a couple of years ago they got $250million, which
wasn't enough.
Repeat: if you let them have it, they will waste it.
--
Cheers, Bev
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey
and car keys to teenage boys." -- P.J. O'Rourke
Rod Speed
Nope, the standard of living in all modern first and second world countrys did that.