Has anyone successfully contested a home reassessment?

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

We just bought this house in June of 2021. That was pretty close to peak market at the time,.....

Are the guys saying to not concern myself with a $14k assessment the same guys complaining about the price of haircuts? 14k on the assessment is a couple hundred in property taxes. That buys a few haircuts.

Around here, the tax assessments that accounted for last year's increases are still significantly behind real market appreciation and what they were in June of 2021. Just like with my homeowner's insurance .... removing a "rider" (last Sept), caused them to rerun the numbers and cost me $200 more this year. I personally would not question a 14K difference .... and I cut my own hair too .

[john70t]

If you do have 'caps' limiting increases to a small percent every year...be wary of remodels...or so I've heard.

Remodeling bathrooms/kitchens or adding any type of square footage might be cause for reassessment.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by island911

....This is right, for around here. But it does happen and is is sad when greedy counties decide to experiment with squeezing harder.
...

Yes, and offices of public agencies have no control over how much staff they can have or how much they can spend. A county assessor can pick fights with local homeowners, but cannot expand its budget to address the costs of those fights. Public agencies have some advantages. They (usually) have the law on their side which gives them certain authorities and powers (granted by a legislature). But they are defenseless when it comes to financial and staffing resources. They differ from private companies in this way.

[island911]

Yes, it should never be the job of representative govt to find ways to squeeze more and more money out of people, esp. using their own laws that benefit only the squeezers, but not the squeezees.

Yet here we are.

[p911dad]

I did this once successfully in an upstate NY county (admittedly long ago). I provided 3 comps to the assessor's office after challenging the new assessment during the period when you could do that. It was a small win, but it helped a little. I was told then the only way they could consider a change was if they had actual market evidence. I have no idea if that is still the way it's done. I know commercial property owners use professional appraisers to challenge assessments ($$$), know as a certiorari challenge in NY Supreme Court.

[greglepore]

When I was a practicing atty in Pa, if you appealed they pretty much knocked 10% off to avoid a hassle. Moved to Va, had a 30% increase first year in (2019) so I figured it was the Pa deal and appealed. I'm apparently a ****ehead. Guy shows up, says, we had your house in avg condition/below avg, looked at my kitchen and said, its above, here's your add'l 15% over what the increase was.
I just greased it up and let him do his thing and moved on wiser.

[rockfan4]

Someone from the assessors office toured the inside of the house on Thursday. I haven't heard back from them, so I'm not expecting much. The thing is, they've got me. I overpaid for the house, because everybody overpaid the last couple of years. They want to value it at what I paid for it. But here's what I think is my out.

The protest must be confined to one or more of the
following grounds:
(a) That said assessment is not equitable as compared with assessments of other like
property in the taxing district.
(b) That the property is assessed for more than the value authorized by law.
(c) That the property is not assessable, is exempt from taxes, or is misclassified.
(d) That there is an error in the assessment.
(e) That there is fraud or misconduct in the assessment which shall be specifically stated.

Point (a) - the guy I talked to on the phone basically admitted they undervalued the other homes in the neighborhood. Maybe the whole city. My point is, if you undervalued them, undervalue mine by a similar amount. That's all I'm asking.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by p911dad

I did this once successfully in an upstate NY county (admittedly long ago). I provided 3 comps to the assessor's office after challenging the new assessment during the period when you could do that. It was a small win, but it helped a little. I was told then the only way they could consider a change was if they had actual market evidence. I have no idea if that is still the way it's done. I know commercial property owners use professional appraisers to challenge assessments ($$$), know as a certiorari challenge in NY Supreme Court.

It almost always goes to court if you use a service. The town doesn’t want to reduce their income, ever. The court is funded separately…

[stomachmonkey]

I get a reduction pretty much every year except for one where it went to the arbitration board and they got pissed at me for proving they were putting the proverbial "thumb on the scale" so to punish me I left owning more than I did when I went in.

[island911]

The sad part of a tax based on how nice your house/property is, is that it disincentives upkeep. I've seen a good bit of this in Hawaii.

CA locks-down the taxable base at purchase price - they don't have this problem.

Most other places: Nice place you have there - give us more money.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by island911

The sad part of a tax based on how nice your house/property is, is that it disincentives upkeep. I've seen a good bit of this in Hawaii.

CA locks-down the taxable base at purchase price - they don't have this problem.

Most other places: Nice place you have there - give us more money.

Houses are reassessed every 5 years here (and are almost always lower than real market value ... even if no appreciation). Does CA really do that .... hard to fathom a house being taxed at what it was purchased for decades ago.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by island911

CA locks-down the taxable base at purchase price - they don't have this problem.
[/I]

Same here.

We have Appraised / Market Value and then Assessed Value.

Assessed is the value our taxes are calculated against.

So on every sale the first year your Appraised and Assessed will match.

But Assessed is capped to a max increase of 10% over previous year.

Since the 1st Assessed value sets the base it should be grieved every year even if the increase comes in under the 10% cap.

I have neighbors who after 15 years are now paying $10k more per year than I am because they never bothered and are now freaking out.

I have a couple of neighbors who when I'd ask over the years how well they did with their protest actually told me they don't protest because "why would we do that? We don't want our property value to depreciate"

Yeah that's not how any of that works, Morons.

[jcommin]

When I owned in Cook County in IL, I protested every year. It is almost a joke in the county. The are several law firms that specialize in this area. I paid $50 and after the reassessment, these firms would take a percentage of the savings. It is/was almost automatic - like the fix was in.

I learned this after I tried to do this on my own. I would look up "comps" and submit. It went nowhere - not until I contacted one of the law firms who specialized in this service.

[rockfan4]

I got a reduction.
Like I said, the neighbor's house, which is the same floorplan, and has newer siding and roof, is assessed $14k less than mine.

They came down $10k. Good enough.

Per their city statutes, they reassess every 2 years. My house in WI hasn't been reassessed in 6 years or more, mainly because we're a small town and we'd have to hire a firm to come in and do the work.

I almost got burned when I sold my mother's condo. It was assessed at $140k for forever, but the comps didn't match that, we listed it for $100k, got an offer of $90k and took it. One less headache for the estate. While we were in escrow the city reassessed it at $100k, had to get the buyers to sign off on the new assessment. Luckily it went through.

[island911]

Originally Posted by KC911

... Does CA really do that .... hard to fathom a house being taxed at what it was purchased for decades ago.

Here you go.



per: https://homesitewiz.com/buy-house/are-california-property-taxes-based-on-purchase-price-or-assessed-value.html

So they do raise it with inflation, but the rate won't decrease if you let it fall apart. IOW, they incentivize people to take care of their property.

[Zeke]

In the real estate fall circa 2010 many CA residents petitioned to have their properties reassessed due to up to 30% loss in value. I believe many cases did get reassessment.

I say leave well enough alone.