Property Tax Appeals

[ChiDisneyFan]

Just wondering if anyone had any success stories when appealing your property taxes. Did you hire an attorney, do it yourself, how much work involved , and was it worth it?

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We have appealed every year. We have been successful. There were forms we filled out at the assessors office.

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[Dizisfun]

I've nvr heard of doing this until last week. We are getting ready to buy another house and the realtor said that ppl do this all the time and they are usually allowed to pay a lower property tax. Hmmmm, something we will have to think about next year.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Ours was primarily because they kept entering informatation incorrectly but this last year they lowered our house value 20000 but the raised the land value 30000 which was just absurd. We won the appeal.

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[dsneprincess]

I have appealed twice, once successfully. I think the difference was the successful time I had a picture of my property and the property I felt was closest to mine and their assessment. The first time, I was young & stupid and thought the assessor would be familiar with the area and property, SO not true! Proceed as if they know nothing and document and prove your case. Good luck!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I did it myself last year. It took me an hour between filling out the forms and doing research. The forms were on the county website.

I used the county tax records online to do my research and used our own neighborhood since most of the houses are the same type - 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 baths with basement.

Then another 20 minutes to drive it to the assessor's office. I won the appeal.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Just wondering if anyone had any success stories when appealing your property taxes. Did you hire an attorney, do it yourself, how much work involved , and was it worth it?

1) We have our residence and several rentals.
2) In our area, you can only appeal every three years.
3) This rule is due to the legal period of re-assessments for our counties.
4) We have only been rejected once for a lowered rate.
6) You DO NOT need an attorney, and can do it yourself.
. . . go online to Zillow and get the houses that sold within a 1-mile radius
. . . go back about 6-months, more if there are few sales
. . . go online to your county Tax Assessor and look up each property
. . . mark down these "comps"
. . . compare the average of all of them to your own assessment
. . . if the average is less, write a letter to you Assessor
. . . list you house, and each of the others and the average
. . . ask for a reduction to the average for similar houses

 

[ceecee]

We've done it twice, no attorney. Once on our house and once on a rental we own. DH printed off a form from our auditor's office online, we filed it and it did take a few months, but our taxes went down!

 

[brota]

how much can you save?

Thank you

 

[amcnj]

Just make sure you read all the rules carefully. In my state it is handled on the county level. My county tax board will throw out any comparison properties that are short sales. I have seen people present evidence that were all short sales and thus their appeal was turned down. The sales had to be before Oct 1 of the prior tax year (assessments are supposedly as of Oct 1 so for 2013 assessment the value is as of Oct 1 2012), and again some people presented evidence using sales after Oct 1 2012 and thus were not allowed. It is doable and winnable on your own but make sure you are giving them what they want to see. Good luck!

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I have done it twice.

My story is almost like GaSleepingBeautyFan, but I spent 3-5 hours doing research.

The first time I had to "brief" a review panel and I won.

The second time the county accepted my number on the fiirst submission.

 

[Ginny Favers]

I did it last year after getting a note from a lawyer saying her could represent us in lowering our tax bill. When I looked into it, I realized that all the assessments and taxes paid by every one of my neighbors was right online, as were the forms I needed to fill out.

I figured I could do everything a lawyer would do on my own. I filled out the form, used the info on other similar properties that I found out, mailed it in with the $25 application fee, and a month later, was approved. Never had to provide photos or go to a hearing. Our taxes are $1000 less this year. Easiest $1000 I ever saved!

 

[Jeff_G]

My county has all their property tax information online, you can enter your address and view your public property record. They then have a section for appeals you click on, it lists the comparable properties found in you area. You can select and or add additional properties from the database. You then enter a description of why you are appealing and submit. Took me about 5 minutes.


The first time I appealed the initial assessor denied the appeal and I choose to goto court. It was held over the telephone, or I could hire an attorney and show up in person. Of course I choose telephone.
I lost my appeal that time as I found out my count also dismissed all foreclosures and short sells. I presented the argument that I had to compete with foreclosures and shortsells when I put my property on the market.
However I lost, I could have done one more appeal but that would have taken an attorney.


So a few years later I did the online appeal again. this time their online database had changed my house to having 2 full baths when in reality I have 1 and 3/4 baths. I stated that along with my comparables and my appeal was granted. I saved about $300 off of my property tax bill.

 

[mikehn]

During the housing bust, it was not uncommon for people to appeal the value of their property, which is what the tax is based upon. During the bust, my mom's property had been valued (for tax purposes) much higher than its market value. I simply filed an appeal with the appropriate jurisdiction indicating that tax valuations were way out of line with market value. I backed that up with printouts of comparables that I searched online for. A short time later, they sent back a much more favorable valuation which significantly reduced the tax bill.

 

[Halle]

I have done it several times. I too researched the comps in the area and brought the info regarding those tax assessments. The person I met with brought up homes in a different neighborhood. The homes were similar to mine but in that neighborhood the homes were all within a few thousand of one another, my neighborhood has a wide price range. I countered that the homes in my neighborhood were alot more or less than mine so it was not a true comparison. My house is next door to the smallest in the neighborhood which I said brought my property value down. I won!! Yeah.