Posted on 04/24/2008 11:21:07 AM PDT by JZelle
Jenifer Simpson has lived in Northwest for more than two decades and never thought that her house off Adams Street — with its lace curtains and wreath on the door — looked empty and abandoned.
But Mrs. Simpson learned this month that city officials had classified the home as vacant. The result? A $13,000 property tax bill — roughly $11,000 more than the amount she normally pays.
"It's kind of insulting to receive a bill for a vacant property in a house you've lived in for 22 years and paid the tax diligently and assiduously," Mrs. Simpson said. "Did they drive by my house and think it looks like a wreck or something?"
Officials say Mrs. Simpson was one of hundreds of property owners who were swept up in a crackdown on abandoned properties that began last year when the D.C. Council passed legislation transferring the authority for classifying a property as vacant from the Office of Tax and Revenue to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
Vacant properties in the city are charged a tax rate of $5 per $100 of assessed value, much more than the rates for occupied buildings. The D.C. Council next month is expected to vote on legislation that would double the rate to $10 per $100 of assessed value.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty also last year began an aggressive campaign to identify and track vacant properties. Officials surveyed 180,000 D.C. properties, and 2,452 are currently classified as vacant, compared with just 800 last year.
DCRA spokesman Michael Rupert said agency officials originally classified 900 more properties as vacant but granted exemptions.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Just curious... does this property tax strategy works? What exactly happens if a hypothetical owner doesn’t pay that high tax bill. The city takes it over and then what do they do with it?
Good. Sorry about the inconvenience to this woman, but cracking down on derelict houses is a good thing for cities. Deadbeat absentee owners who let houses go to weed and rot add unbelievable blight. Tax them then bulldoze them and re-sell the property or turn it into green space. The sooner the better.
WHAT????
My house is vacant 5 months or so of the year....they could question me too...if they came on the wrong day!
Why do they put the “Proof” on the taxpayer?
Good luck and not too many headaches lady!
I’m guessing here- did the city hire a contractor who got paid per vacant home found?
That's it? The guideline they use is empty for 30 days?
What if a single person had to travel to another state to assist a dying parent? And besides, what business is it of The State's if a person inhabits their own house at irregular or infrequent intervals?
What if a person has two homes? A Winter and a Summer home?
I could start off on a real tearass rant here on how Stalinist this is but I think I'll just sit and shake my head in disbelief.
There is a HUGE difference between derelict and uninhabited.
I agree with your statement but this is NOT what the pukes in local DC government are doing.
This is happening in the Glorious Peoples' Democratic Socialist District of Columbia.
Well it stays vacant but since the city then owns it there are no longer any taxes paid on the property. Yes it works well, at least as well as all of the other loony left tax schemes.
Usually they auction it off to any interested buyers. The buyer is usually responsible for any liens, mortgages etc on the property after the sale.
Montgomery County, MD is no better. They wanted to classify the single-family house I bought last year as a rental property, despite the fact that I and my family have been living there since the day I bought it.
Boards on the windows and doors are usually a good sign nobody’s home. This isn’t a problem and is easily rectified. There really isn’t much burden to prove. Simple faxed gas/eletric/phone bill and it’s taken care of.
DC is working again, and flush with cash. Blocks of crackhouses are cleaned up and on the taxrole. This wouldn’t have happened under Sharon Pratt Kelly, or Marion B. There were thousands of vacant homes 20 years ago that produce a few million in taxes every year.
Da Komrad я с вами. Give the cities more power over their citizens and tax the citizens more heavily - oh and at the smae time forbid them to defend themselves (ala Wash DC). After all if they haven't done anything wrong, then they have nothing to worry aobut right? We need to hammer absentee property owners on the anvil of legislation. Why it says right in the Bill of rights that property owners have to their lawns mowed or lose their house to the government. Maybe we can go after those whose houses don't meet current building coeds too.
I s’pose this is an effort to prevent vacant properties from becoming flophouses, crackhouses as does happen in many cities, but once again is proving the inefficiency of Government.
They would have a field day in Detroit!
Standard issue row house neighborhood on the border with NE.
I live in Fl. About 2 years ago I put up a chain link fence (no permit required). I didn’t notify anyone because it wasn’t necessary.
This year I got my property taxes. Right on the front, I was assessed for a chain link fence. Busy little bees, those assessors are.
Just write back that you can’t pay it becuase you’re dead...
You seem to believe that there is still such a thing as “pprivate property.” The Supreme Court said no. Government Units can classify “your” property just about any way it pleases and can do what it pleases with it.
I also live in Florida. My neighbors have chain link fences. I am taxed for their chain link fences because two sides of my yard now bordered by chain link fence and none of it mine.The county says it doesn’t matter whose fence it is or on whose property. My property gets the “benefit” of it therefore I have to pay more tax.
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