Anybody ever fight a tax assessment increase on a house?

[Squisher]

I live in the worst housing market in the U.S. (Southeast Michigan) Prices have fallen between 10 and 20 percent in the last year or two.

I bought this house 1 1/2 years ago and I just received an assessment increase of $5000 of Equalized Value which means they're saying my house is worth $10,000 more.

In my sub of 119 houses, 7 houses sold in 2005 for an average of $320K, in 2006 one house sold for $280K (it was on the market 206 days).

I looked at the assessment and could only think WTF.

What are my chances?

 

[iamwiz82]

Pretty good. Rochester Hills lowered ours this year.

 

[tm37]

In MN you basically need to do an appraisal.

Seeing as an appraisel is $400 and my taxes are 1100 I doubt I will be doing it

 

[imported_weadjust]

I was the county tax appriaser for a couple of years in MS in the early 90s. There isn't much you can fight at least in MS. '

The tax value of the house is determined using a forumula.

Conustrution class of home, square footage, times a variable # set by the county less depreciation.

The only thing you could challenge would be the lot/land assessment or the depreciation amount

You got nothing to lose by questioning the assessment. Worth a shot all they can say is no.

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Pretty good. Rochester Hills lowered ours this year.

And that is only just.

Originally posted by: tm37
In MN you basically need to do an appraisal.

Seeing as an appraisel is $400 and my taxes are 1100 I doubt I will be doing it

Hmm, my yearly taxes are around $4500. This assessment would cause an increase of about $150 so I'll have to see if it'll be worth my while.

 

[3NF]

Buy a boat and live on the water

 

[Doggiedog]

My ex boss did. He's pretty wealthy and they assessed his property tax at $50,000. He sued and got it lowered to $40,000. Unfortunately, the local mall in his town also sued for lower taxes and won which then increased everyone's taxes and brought his taxes back up to $50,000.

 

[meltdown75]

I work in property assessment.

All I can say is contact your local assessment office. A kick at the can never, ever hurts and is usually free.

Sounds like you have some good knowledge of the area. Armed with that, you can present your side and maybe have a shot at getting it reduced. Where I work, there is an informal review process in which we take a good hard look at the property and may or may not lower it based on the findings. If it does not get lowered, the ratepayer still has the option to file a formal appeal which is a mini court case of sorts before a chairman which is independent from both parties.

If you know for a fact that your house wouldn't sell for what it is assessed at, you could always use the good old, "if you think it's worth that much, how 'bout you buy it from me?"

 

[gooseman]

I did. I bought my house 2 years ago and last year they re-assessed and sent me a letter basically saying that my house was worth 17,000 more than I paid. I appealed it and got it lowered by quite a bit. It helped that I had a fairly recent copy of an apraisal(from when I bought it).

 

[JulesMaximus]

Definitely fight it. Government employees are big pussies, they'll cave in just because you bitched and wasted their time.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Definitely fight it.

Herein lies one of the most common ignorant misconceptions about speaking to someone regarding your property assessment. If you intend to contact someone, I assure you that it is much easier for yourself and who you will be speaking to if you do away with any confrontational expectations you may have. It is a discussion, nothing more, intended to bring additional information to both parties and arrive at a mutual agreement.

Mass appraisal by essence is guaranteed to be imperfect simply by nature. In Ontario, our corporation values over 4.5 million properties on a semi-annual basis. The volume of data that we work with is incomparable, yet our rate of appeal is less than 1% which exceeds international quality standards for our industry.

Government employees are big pussies, they'll cave in just because you bitched and wasted their time.

Ignorance at its finest and pure trolling I presume. Good show! *golf clap*

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Definitely fight it.

Herein lies one of the most common ignorant misconceptions about speaking to someone regarding your property assessment. If you intend to contact someone, I assure you that it is much easier for yourself and who you will be speaking to if you do away with any confrontational expectations you may have. It is a discussion, nothing more, intended to bring additional information to both parties and arrive at a mutual agreement.

Mass appraisal by essence is guaranteed to be imperfect simply by nature. In Ontario, our corporation values over 4.5 million properties on a semi-annual basis. The volume of data that we work with is incomparable, yet our rate of appeal is less than 1% which exceeds international quality standards for our industry.

Government employees are big pussies, they'll cave in just because you bitched and wasted their time.

Ignorance at its finest and pure trolling I presume. Good show! *golf clap*

Sounds like a case of hook, line and sinker to me.