I just received my new 2008 county appraisal in the mail and my jaw hit the floor. The appraisal value of my home jumped over 6% this year and there's no way my house is worth as much as they say. I thought it was a bit borderline last year...it's gone up by leaps and bounds every year since we bought the home. At first I thought it all had to do with the new siding we put up when we moved in, but now it's gone well past what I could possibly hope to sell the house for. I mean, 2 of my neighbor's homes are currently on the market for about what they say my home is worth -- and they have 700 more square feet!
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has had this problem before? I want to fight this, but I'm not sure what evidence to present and how to present it. I've found the appraised values for some neighbor's homes and even compared to other county numbers, ours seems inflated. I'm making copies of all of those, but unfortunately none of our close neighbors have comparable houses -- we're a relatively small split nestled in amongst 2-story giants with at least 700 more square feed. (They say our home is worth the same as these neighbors'.) There are a few more homes with this floor plan a few blocks away...I'm going to go for a walk and write down those addresses to look up, too.
So any ideas on what steps I should take and what information I should put together? On the form, they ask how much I think the home is actually worth. I don't know, I just know this is too high ...is there someone else who could do a counter-appraisal?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
This is going to depend a LOT on state law.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
I was afraid of that. I'm hoping to do this sans lawyers as the goal is to get my property taxes down and by the time I paid a lawyer, it would be kind of moot!
I'm terrible at sifting through state laws. Hmmm, but I think my husband's EAP (Employee Assitence Plan) will give us 30 minutes to chat with a lawyer. Oooh, thanks for the inspiration!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Good luck!
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I know around here you can appeal a re-appraisal/request a new one. A lot of them are done by computers without any human input, and you just have to file a few request forms to have a human come out and do a physical appraisal. If there's a program like that in your area it might not be that hard.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
kq, in California an appraisal for tax purposes is very rare. Prop. 13, neh?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
The assessment should have contact info for challenging it. In the county's I'm familiar with, the initial appeal doesn't really need a lawyer.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
rivka, all I know is that it's happened to some homeowners I know around here recently. It's not an actual appraisal so much as a computer-generated "adjustment" most of the time. Right now people are trying to get appraisals because that way their taxes will probably go down; my mom's friend had to do that... I'm not sure of the legal ins and outs but it happens.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Thanks, everyone!
I hope this is a computer adjustment error or something, but if so then I can't figure out why my house has gone up and my neighbors' haven't.
Posted by BlueWizard (Member # 9389) on :
Well, they can appraise your home at any value they choose,...why..., because they can get away with it.
To the county, this has nothing to do with the value of your home, it has to do with how much money they want to raise. And take note that they universally over-value middle class homes and UNDER-value rich people's homes.
They will try to justify that by saying that rich people pay more for their homes than the homes are worth, but I'm sure that is a diversion.
In Minnesota, especially in Minneapolis and the surrounding area, a little research found that the appraisers were doing this consistently and with a clear pattern that resulted in a law suit that won back payments to middle class home owners.
This is a common pattern in all governments, to take the most money from the people who are least able to challenge the validity of taking that money.
Ask yourself this, as I'm sure you have, how can your house value go up in the greatest housing price, building, and sales slump in recent history?
It won't be an easy process to challenge then, they, in a sense, have infinite money and unlimited legal power (both in lawyers and in their ability to create and interpret laws).
Though in most cases, this unequal appraisals of homes is not literally supported by the law. Once again, it is done against the people least likely to challenge the appraisal.
In many cases, your house is never really appraised at all. Some guy in a office, who never leaves his office, simply say, OK, this year this house is going to be worth 6% more.
Check at a local university law school and see if their is a team of senior law students who would like to get their legal feet wet for free or for basic filing costs.
Check with the American Civil Liberties Union, if they won't take the case, they may point you to some one who will take if for free or cheap.
Once expense you will probably have to incur is the cost of a real-estate appraiser to come in an make a fair-market appraisal of your home.
It is especially good that their are homes in your neighborhood that are currently for sale, as that somewhat sets a real-world market standard. If as you say, their homes are larger than yours but are taxed less than your, you also have a precedent to get yours lowered.
Good luck, though don't expect it to be an easy process.
Steve/bluewizard
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Honestly, my recommendation is to contact an attorney who specializes in property tax assessment challenges. The ones we work with do so on a contingency basis - they only get paid if they can reduce your assessment, and they take their fee out of the refund check that the county issues.
I've already got a call out to ours to get a referral for someone. If you can't get to an attorney through your husband's EAP program, let me know where you are and I'll see what names I can get for you.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I've challenged a tax appraisal on my own. Of course, we'd just bought the house, and that was our basis for challenging it. I took my closing documents down to the county assessors office. There was fairly clear instructions on the back of the tax notice explaining my optins, though.
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
When I lived in Tucson, our house's tax value was far less than its market value. I want to say it was about 50% of what we paid for it (so 33% of what we sold it for). I'm really not sure what criteria they were using for appraisal.
--Mel
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
In Texas, I did property tax consulting for one summer. Essentially, people with your issue would come to us and we'd develop spreadsheets with comparable sales in the area that showed that they'd overvalued their house. We didn't charge anything unless we saved them money. I don't know the laws of your state, but it seems quite possible that their are similar companies around you. Or if you want to do it yourself, I recommend taking pictures of any remotely problematic areas in your home. If you know anybody that's a Realtor, see if they can look up comparable sales. If you can't do that, showing the asking price of comparable houses that have been on the market for a while has potential. These are the most convincing methods because they reflect the actual value of your home. You can also protest based on the fairness of the taxes (you're house is appraised significantly higher than neighbors), but I would try to include other information as well.
Good luck!
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Good luck with your challenge, Christine. I have gone in for a hearing before and had success. Usually they are willing to listen, in my experience.
Mine jumped quite a bit this year, as well. However, I don't think I can fight it, because the ONLY home that is our 'neighbor" recently sold at auction for much higher than anyone thought it would go. So they can point to that and say "see?"
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