All of my neighbors (myself included) received a letter today in the mail stating our city is in the process of collecting data for valuation update purposes, the process requires that all dwellings w/in the city be measured and inspected. Goes on to say what company the city hired to come out and appraise the properties and gives you the phone number to call the company to schedule the appraisal it's mandatory we all do this gives you a date by which you have to have it done and gives you a parcel ID to give to the company when calling.
So my neighbors and I have our speculations but I wanted to see what you guys thought (I'm interested in seeing if my neighbors and I thought the same thing).
They want to see the home for appraisal purposes. If you finished off the basement, put in another bath, made a 3 season room out of a screened porch, had a great new entryway,etc(you get what I mean) they want to know so they can raise your assessed valute, which then leads to a tax increase. Often times handy homeowners do this type of work and don't pull permits. The suburb that I used to live in did this every 5-7 years to stay on top.
Posts: 234 | Location: michigan | Registered: May 16, 2007
"beantown2008," Very simple - they are up-dating the assessment for real property tax purposes which, in all likelihood, will result in increased taxes for you with your next tax assessment notice!
That's what we said but my question to my neighbors was how will they justify raising our taxes when homes on our very street (the ones that have the same layout as my house same style etc) are selling for between 30k and 60k LESS then what I paid for my house 2 years ago. I'm curious how they will justify that one. One of my neighbors will most likely have her taxes raised as she hasn't had an appraisal since she purchased the house 15 yrs ago when it was built and she has since converted a room into a bedroom and added a sunroom. I haven't made big changes to the house, I didn't add rooms, didn't add a fireplace or more bathrooms etc, can they count hardwood in the appraisal I doubt it. That's all I've done aside from painting and molding to the house.
I remember when I was a little kid my dad told my mom not to answer the door if anyone came to it this one particular week if he was at work when the appraiser came, he refused to let them in. My sister let them in, in her house but her husband was actually mad and told her she didn't have to let them in. I always thought you had to let them in? The one good thing is I looked up my house information on the city website and they have my house listed as having a fireplace which it doesn't and they also have it listed as a 4 bedroom and it's not it's a 3 bedroom and before anyone asks only the three bedrooms have closets in the house the living room and dining room dont' have closets! Wonder if they will take money off for that!
I don't think you have to let them in, but if you don't they usually measure the outside of the house and start guessing about what's inside. It appears that they've already guessed incorrectly about what's in your house. So if you don't let them in and you get the new appraisal and it's higher, you then get to go appeal it and be prepared to bring pictures, listing sheets from your purchase showing # of bedrooms it sold with, proof that there isn't any fireplace, etc., etc.
You could have appealed the incorrect info the last time you got your tax bill for the new year.
"A house is a shell. The people who live in that house make it come alive, and no designer in the world can do that for them." - William Haines
"beantown2008," They don't have to justify it! They simply assess your property at their new value and it is up to you to disprove it which is very difficult to do.
Most jurisdictions are several years behind so they didn't tax places at full market value then and, now, are playing catch up to market values of several years ago by re-assessing properties still occupied by homeowners and re-valuing at yesterday's boom price. Been there and still paying for it; but very difficult to disprove in a tax assessment protest matter.
Myself, I would not call to schedule an appointment nor let anyone into my home BUT then I would have to be willing to take it on the chin if the assessment from the exterior was one I didn't like!
OR, , you could always schedule an appointment on the day after you have spent weeks clearing out all that "clutter" we all accumulate, leaving it in every room and hallway the assessor has to navigate to view your house but I never said so....
Good luck from someone who has had their property assessment go up 150% over the last year while our local real estate market is crashing!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Idaho Resident,
Make sure that letter is actually from the city. There are some marketing ploys out there that look real and are not.
This might be a good thing for you if they have the info on your house wrong. When they are through and you get notified of the new value be sure you have them explain how they arrived at that amount. Usually they will have a public meeting to do this but if they don't you can still get it.
Posts: 1613 | Location: North MN & Northern AR | Registered: Oct 01, 2002
Same thing happened to me. I explained that the home was a wreck when I bought it, and by the time they visited, just my luck, the home was re-done. I tried to explain, but the tax assessors rep. said too bad we didn't get here when it ws a wreck maybe - you would have come out better.
I am still fighting $6100. yr. taxes.
I show homes all the time where the garage door is still in place but inside.. the garage had been remodeled into a beautiful room. Many times I have asked why is the garage door still up --- and the seller usually responds for tax purposes!
Here is what I found out. I jumped on the city website last night and they are in fact doing this however I did read that you don't by law have to let them in your house (it was on the city website) they said If no access is allowed, assumptions will have to be made based on similar properties.. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess they haven't done this since the early 80's (my house wasn't built until 1993) they started it in 2005 doing all commercial buildings and this year they are starting to do residential. I found out by going to the appraisers website you can look up your house to see what the city has your house deemed as and I'm s c r e w e d they have my house down as a 2 bedroom (it's not it's a 3 bedroom) and they have me down as only having 4 rooms total (I have 7) why they have this assumption is beyone me no homes in my neighborhood have a 4 rooms total, they also have me down as having an unfinished basement (one of the previous owners finished half of the basement) and they don't' have my deck on the appraisal either. Granted they say I have a fireplace which I don't but compared to the other stuff that I do have which they don't have listed uhh. My neighbor isn't having them in her house, she converted a room into a bedroom which we highly doubt the majority of others in the neighborhood have done so she's better off not having them in her house. They explain how they come to the price of your taxes, they basically said they have a set amount of money they need a year and they divi it up between everyone. They also said that the sales price of similar properties for the previous year help determin your house worth plus or minus 10% if you don't agree that your house is worth what they say it is (if they have it's worth more then 10% of what other homes are worth) you can file for an abatement. They also show how your taxes are added up. It's $11.90 per 1,000.00 of your houses worth, they have how much I paid for the house listed on there (with my purchase date etc) I paid 300k for the house two years ago however over the last year the same style house (mine is the second smallest size/style in my neighborhood) all of the homes that are the same style as mine have sold for roughly 30k less then what I paid for mine this past year and right now people w/the same style house have theirs on the market for as much as 60k below what I paid for mine.
That is tooo funny pulling out everything and cluttering up my house so the assessor can't walk through easily I'm such a neat/clean freak I'd probably have a panic attack if my house looked like that!
If I let them in then they will definately know I have more rooms then they think I have if I don't let them in then I can take the chance they will leave the house info as is hopefully. I'm not letting them in I'll wait to see what they come back with and go from there I guess.
Next time they come here I am going to let the grass grow for a month and throw some toys in the front yard--along with a note that I have gone to the church to pick up some groceries(lol)
OMG!! I actually did that when we first moved into our home. The lady called and said she would be here soon and I told the kids to start dumping certain boxes and crowd the house. It worked! She took one look inside and said "I will keep this house at what it was a few years ago, you sure do have your hands and um house full". Either we scared her off or she just didnt want to deal with climbing over stuff! andrea
We live outside the city limits, so we are taxed only by the borough (similar to a county). Our home is assessed annually by the borough, but it is a drive-by. Generally that's good, but I do know of a couple of cases where it was bad. A friend was having some work done and so they had a dumpster outside. The work actually didn't all get done, dragged on, and wasn't done properly. Because the dumpster was outside when the house was assessed, the borough assumed my friend had finished their entire basement and raised the assessment. Luckily they were able to fight it and had their assessment reduced. Permits are not required for building outside the city limits.
In addition, the paperwork that is filed with the borough at the time of purchase lists the mortgage amount but not the purchase price. We got two letters from the borough asking us to provide the purchase price. We didn't respond, since we made a fairly large down payment. Our mortgage amount was pretty close to the current assessed value, so our assessment only went up $1000 this year, after increases over $5000 for each of the past three years. With a rate decrease and taking an exemption the previous owner did not have, our taxes actually went down $500 this year!
Guess I should have added that many thought our home should have been a tear down, but I loved the style and woodwork inside and it had sit vacant for 3 yrs.
Great topic, all! We are seeing the effects of re-assessments in our area this month with new assessments across the board without personal inspectations. Our county had not re-assesed in the last five years (top of the market time!) so re-assessed everyone's values for 2008 based on 2003 values! Not good...
Problem is that it is nearly impossible to dispute the assessments as they are based on near by sales and NOTHING is selling so prices seem locked into the highs of 2003.
Maybe it is fair given the properties went for some years at pre-2000 year values; maybe not as we are being assessed at 2003 values which are a faint memory....
PS. For the OP, I always remember the old saying of "I'm from the government and here to help you" so doubt that I would schedule the appointment. BUT if you don't, be prepared to pay whatever the taxes are on exterior review!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Idaho Resident,
, you could always schedule an appointment on the day after you have spent weeks clearing out all that "clutter" we all accumulate, leaving it in every room and hallway the assessor has to navigate to view your house but I never said so.... 
