Property Tax Appeal

[JDARNELL]

Went to the mailbox today to get yesterdays mail and I had a letter from our local county tax accessor. We got our assement about a month ago and from the year prior there was a 7% reduction due to falling property values. Well duh this was no suprise to me that the price had fallen on homes. We bought this house as a forclosure that we picked up at about 58 cents on the dollar from the market high.

So I decided I would appeal as we are not going anywhere. I just used the info that the county was providing on their site did a little square footage cost and market comps sold. Got the notice today and they concurred. Another 18% reduction for a total of a 25% reduction of what we are currently paying.

Translation- Less expenses per month as I move into ER!

Of course I will need this money to align the front end on my cars due to all the potholes the county can't fill because they have no money

Tomcat98

 

[Nords]

It's always good to see the taxpayer win one. Around here the challenge wouldn't be processed for over a year (right, Clif?) because the county govt would've laid off all the tax assessors.

Of course I will need this money to align the front end on my cars due to all the potholes the county can't fill because they have no money

It'll be interesting to compare your current commuting miles to your soon-to-be ER/baseball dad miles...

 

[frank]

they increased the value of my home 10,000, 4 years ago. I just recieved a notice in the mail that the value has gone up another 17,000. the first time it went up I got all the paperwork, local property comparable sales, anything I could find to say that my value hasn't increased that much. when the hearing came I presented my evidence and they said they would be in touch. when I went in for the next meeting they told me I was right that they had raised it too much, but the increase prior to that had not been enough, so it evened itself out and I got no decrease. the property values in the whole country are going down, but in my area everyone is getting substantial increases, Iowa, how is that possible?

 

[braumeister]

It's important to keep in mind that when property valuation goes down, tax levies will almost inevitably go up, so you'll wind up paying more in most cases, after an enjoyable delay until the next increase.

 

[rescueme]

It's important to keep in mind that when property valuation goes down, tax levies will almost inevitably go up, so you'll wind up paying more in most cases, after an enjoyable delay until the next increase.

That's true in our area. While the last county-wide assessment was done almost 20 years ago, home prices have dropped.

That dosen't mean taxes have dropped. You still have to pay for services (police/medical/fire/school/etc.) regardless of any temporary flux in your perceived house value.

 

[JDARNELL]

It's important to keep in mind that when property valuation goes down, tax levies will almost inevitably go up, so you'll wind up paying more in most cases, after an enjoyable delay until the next increase.

I have thought about this however there is not much I can do other than vote when the time comes. We live in a very conservative county and taxes are considered "EVIL". When candidates run for any office it is not how conservative they are but rather who is the most conservative in the field. So while I think the county does need more revenue at this point as the infrastructure and assets appear to be in decay, I think we are going the opposite way in the short run. Even at the higher property tax I was laughing at how little tax we actually pay on our homes.

 

[JDARNELL]

It's always good to see the taxpayer win one. Around here the challenge wouldn't be processed for over a year (right, Clif?) because the county govt would've laid off all the tax assessors.


It'll be interesting to compare your current commuting miles to your soon-to-be ER/baseball dad miles...

You know I had to call the state about a tax issue last week and they wouldn't let me get into the que to hold as the wait time is to long. The message said due to budget cuts. Also they only are open 4 days a week now. I figure they will call me if they have an issue as I am not chasing them down to see what they wanted.

I will write down my odometer reading the day I ER and track the next few months. My guess is I will see a huge drop.

Tomcat98

 

[deserat]

Congrats on the upcoming ER! And congrats on the tax relief....

 

[Nords]

You know I had to call the state about a tax issue last week and they wouldn't let me get into the que to hold as the wait time is to long. The message said due to budget cuts. Also they only are open 4 days a week now.

I don't think this is what I had in mind when I voted for "less government".

A couple months ago I called our assessors about a new property-tax exemption for owners of photovoltaic systems. The law had been passed in 2009 for implementation in 2010, but I hadn't heard anything from them for a few months. The clerk said that they were still figuring out the procedure for the assessments and had quite a backlog, so they wouldn't be implementing the law for many more months.

[Interesting. The law's on the books but I can't benefit from it because we don't have the bureaucracy in place yet, and nobody's pushing for it to be implemented. Great. But probably not a good idea to debate this with the clerk.]

I asked why there was a backlog of assessments. It turned out that the assessors planned to implement the law by reassessing homes equipped with PV arrays-- because a PV array adds value to the home. Then, after reassessing your home at its new higher value, they'd exempt the (depreciated) value of the PV array.

How many homeowners (who can do math) would expect this process to reduce their property's assessed values?

When (if?) they eventually get around to me, I'm going to tell them "Never mind"...

 

[JDARNELL]

I just got the appeal for one of 3 rentals that I also appealed. Once again the accessor concurred with what I said. He actually went a little lower. So another 25% reduction on property taxes which I can use for maintenance. Forget trying to make money in the market just work on reducing expenses