Fought property assessment -- and won?

(vanity)

[laurav]

I was wondering if anyone here had fought a property tax assessment -- and won, thereby reducing your taxes? Is such a process difficult? I had read that most homes are overassessed.

[alisasny]

What if your not overassessed and an appriasal comes up even higher thus increasing. Figure out the value of your house using comparable home sales at www.domania.com before proceeding.

[ken5050]

10 years ago, a friend of mine successfully fought his taxes.. He used comps of his three neighbor's adjoining houses....THEIR valuations were increased, inline wth his..Beware the law of unintended consequences..

[Frank_Discussion]

If you are willing to go to the courthouse and all that, and some research to back up you claims, it's not too bad at all. I did it last year, and cut my tax increase in half.

[Steven W.]

to the contrary, in rising markets, most houses are UNDER assessed. I thought & considered the same after completing an addition when the tax guy was already inspecting the site & upping our rates before the final report. What you have to do is compare the value they have specified with a true assessment of your property. Ultimately, if you proceed along these lines, the county will hire several independent assessors to assess your property on the whole. Those values will be used and - near guaranteed - they will be higher than the amount currently being used for calculations by your county assessor and then - you're screwed - the new amount will be put in place and you'll then be liable for whatever obligations that might place upon you.

[magnumsgirl]

Yep, last year our state (Indiana) has a huge reassessment of all property, residential & business. Our business taxes were doubled, as were most other business property taxes. We contested the new assessment, and won! There was a local accounting firm that handled all of the paperwork and appearances on our behalf. Their charge was 1/2 of amount saved on first years taxes. Check your local accounting firms and see if they offer such a service. BTW, there was no charge if the assessment did not change. Good luck!

[Lunatic Fringe]

You should *always* contest the asessment of your property, every year.

One year I was asessed way too high. Come to find out, they said I had a backyard pool when I did not.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Idea: If you want legal assistance, hire a lawyer.

[hopespringseternal]

Yes, every year but one I fought, and every time I fought it I won.

But I live in Harris County (Houston,TX) where the appraisers are fair when you protest. They are still in a good mood from all the crack they smoked when they appraised your house in the first place.

[Arrowhead1952]

We live close to Lake Travis in Texas. Our street is called Lakefront Dr. In 1992, we got the appraisal and we had a fit. The appraisal was $175,000 and we had paid less than $100,000 for the home. The tax office thought we had a lake view.

I told the office worker "The only time we saw water from our home, was when the lake was 31 feet above normal and the fishing marina was sitting on top of an electical pole and #18 green on the golf course was under water."

Our appraisal dropped by $50,000 and has stayed about the same ever since.

[Frank_Discussion]

You must not live in Houston. They capped how much your house can be increased in appraised value, and amazingly they ALWAYS seem to max it out for everyone that I know. Then the tax folks complain...

[Frank_Discussion]

Haha! Too right!

[Phantom Lord]

In my part of NC, the tax value of a home is less than its actual market value, and sometimes by many thousands of dollars.

However, we have to pay a personal property tax on our automobiles. Those are always grossly over inflated in value. I did fight that values given to my cars and had them reduced a great deal.

[Damocles]

I protested the year after I bought my house and won. Small rural community though with farmers sitting on the appraisal board in the off season.

Fair guys and reasonable. Maybe I got lucky.

[shattered]

Only once and I got it lowered 10% over the phone.

In Texas, there is a 10% yearly cap..not on the appraised value increase but in the amount of the appraised value that can be considered taxable. This is good on primary residences, not rentals. So, if they increased a house from 100K to 150K - the taxes could only be based on 110K for that year..and then up another 10% the next year till it reaches the appraised value.

[laurav]

Wow- nice to find out you have a lake view when you actually don't! Maybe the assessor was thirsty and seeing mirages....

[Becki]

We just appealed the assessments on both our house and a buisness. They both increased dramatically, the business to almost double.

There is a board that you appear before, in our case 5 people. It was very informal. We took the last two years of assessments, plus the new one. They asked a few questions, and it only took about 1/2 hour. In one township, they notified us in writing, and in the other, reduced it in writing before we left.

Good luck!!

Becki

[ibbryn]

Based on the posts here, it seems there is a wide variance in both how to appeal and how successful you will be. I went to tax assessors office, got a bunch of comparable assessments, drafted a letter and sent it in. 2 hours of my time was worth the reduction.

[Arrowhead1952]

Wow- nice to find out you have a lake view when you actually don't!

Sure thing. Lake Travis is the only flood control lake on the Colarado River. The "normal pool level" is 681 mean feet above sea level. In late '91 the lake went to 711 MFSL and early '92 707. The #2 tee box is just behind my home. The lowest part of the fairway of this par 5 was under water.

There is a elevation marker just a few hundred feet from my home and it is 732 MFSL and it is about 20 feet lower than our home. Guess if we ever flood at that elevation, there will be plenty of other homes that will be totally under water.

[laurav]

I had heard a few horror stories of appraisals going up, but apparently that only happens about 1% of the time. The other 49%, you're denied. The other 50%, you win. So those odds don't seem so bad...