Can't chellange property assessmen/taxes
 

So, I bought my homestead property. The county assessor placed a value on it way over what I just paid. State law says that the property must be assessed at the fair market value. Four other properties in the same area sold at about the same time and the prices they brought are in line with what I paid for mine. I decided to challenge the assessment because the taxes are based on the assessment. What I have found is the process is so convoluted and burdensome that you shouldn't even try.

First there was a meeting with the assessor. He lowered the assessment from 2 1/2 times what I just paid for it to 2 times what I just paid for it. When I pointed out that my parcel was smaller than what the county listed it at, he lowered the assessment to 1 1/2 times what I just paid for it.

Next I had to go before the county board to try to get the assessment lowered. I requested that the assessor give me a copy of the comparative properties he had used to figure the value of my parcel. He gave me a study that contained the comps, but gave it to me at the meeting with the county board. I had no chance to review the study and comps before the meeting so, of course, I lost my appeal.

Now I'm PO'd. I filed a small claims lawsuit with the State Tax Court. I had to run around and give copies of the action to 4 different county departments and file the action with the County Assessor and the County Clerk of Court. I also paid $160 to file.

I called the State Tax Court recently and found out it will be over a year from now before the case is heard. It's already been 9 months since I initiated my protest of the assessment. Are they hoping I die before the hearing?

Bottom line is that there is no reasonable way to protest your property assessment.

I had something similiar happen to me. There was a 119 acre piece that was listed at $159K. I offered $80k and it was accepted. The accessor valued it at $120k. I objected but he said the $80k was accepted as a "distressed sale". I argued that the piece was on the market fo 6 months with no offers. I lost. I have to admit that the seller sold it at a lower price as he was in a situation where he needed money to keep his father out of a nursing home.

In my part of the state you need to appeal the tax a few moths before the property tax appeal meeting, as they only bring records to that meeting for the properties that have been brought up ahead of time.

So,in the paper you see notice of the appeals meeting, but if you show up you can't appeal anything - so sorry.

Then. Try owning farm land the past few years....

My taxes went up 20-24% a year for the past 4 years.

Will again next year. On top.of that a new school referendum was passed, the town folk finally realized with the new way property taxes are figured, their taxes go up $25 a year for the next 20 years. My taxes will go up a bit over $1000 a year for the next 2 decades, on a rather small farm. This is on top of the 21% increase already set up.

Meanwhile, corn went from $6-7 a bu to under $3 a bushel right now. And they are suggesting it will drop more..... Govt gets the first 10bu or more per acre, whether the weather allows me to raise any at all.

Paul

Don't take this the wrong way, but I see you live in the state of Minnesota. They LOVE their taxes in MN.


I live in a different state. I got the tax assessment this year. I appealed it. They came out and took some measurements outside. A few weeks later my appeal was approved and I got a new lower assessment.

Get an independent appraisal from a appraiser certified for the type of property you bought in your state. That's the only way to beat the game in WV. Maybe that will work for you too.

This sounds crazy. We got our assessment and it was 40k over what we had just bought the place for. All I did was call the tax assessor and asked some questions... I have a good phone voice though and it was a male assessor maybe that had something to do with it :P. But we got reassessed and it was then only 3k over what we bought for.

Doggone, I'd be out of there as soon as I could be if that's how they are going to be about the property taxes.

Elections are coming up so if your county commissioner is up for re-election be sure to vote for their challenger.

The deck is stacked absolutely against the tenant listed on your deed.

"The power to tax is the power to destroy."

Who would be dumb enough to trust soulless bureaucrats with that power, let alone career politicians ?

It probably depends upon what state and county you live in. I have successfully appealed property taxes and got them lowered significantly, and it wasn't difficult but did take a little time and research. I'm in Alabama.
Dawn

I have a friend that bought ten acres and put a $50,000 kit house on it.
He thought the assessment was way too high so he spoke up. The assessor came back and walked the property. He agreed to lower it until he found the little pond out back in the woods. He measured around it a put down that they had 132' of water frontage. My friend wound up paying half again what he had started with.

I am doing this mostly because I don't like bullys. The assessor has been arrogant from the start and he and the county have pulled shenanigans to prevent me from appealing.

The court's rules state that you have a much better chance of winning if you have an independent appraiser. They go on to state that you must have the appraiser in the court room for cross examination during the hearing. You have to pay him to appear. They will pay for his time in the court room if you win but they will not pay for his travel time to get there. You are out significant money even if you win.

In my opinion a relatively poor person should be able to appeal their property valuation/property tax at little or no cost to them. Otherwise the gooberment is discriminating against the poor.

I filed in the small claims version of Tax Court. If I had filed in the regular version then I would have to pay for a court reporter. This could be thousands I don't have.

A low income person or even a person of average income can't challenge their property valuation because of the stumbling blocks thrown in their way and the cost of doing so.

It does make a difference where you live, Minnesota has intentionally stacked the deck and made it a bureaucratic maze.
Some places I've lived it was as easy as an informal visit to the assessor's office in the courthouse. I do sometimes miss living where I grew up. Knowing everyone's kids and parents can sure cut thru a lot of red tape quicker than a sharp knife......;)

The first red flag was the "tax court" you have to appeal to.:hand:
Beware all such institutions. They are run outside the constitutional boundaries of law and are rigged kangaroo courts.




Your last line is a correct assessment of the situation.
Find an alternate route.
The tax court will likely be a dead end.
I sometimes find it useful to try UNreasonable ways.
People, especially elected officials, are sensitive to bad publicity. An angry soul carrying a sign of protest outside their place of business and on their public thoroughfares can be quite persuasive.:D

My new assesments came in the mail a couple of weeks ago. In one year the assessed value of our property and improvements went up $10,000. $9,800 was increased value of improvements. I haven't added any structures to my property at all. I was going to appeal it, but their assessed value is still $2200 less than I paid for the place so I know I would lose the appeal. Plus, Indiana law states something along the lines that property taxes cannot exceed 1% (or something close to that) of the assessed value. At least that's what I was told.

Our land here in SE MN is assessed very high, taxes out of sight!

Minnesota, the land of 10,000 taxes!

I don't want to make this political, but it is election time, and there is an ad on TV saying how the incumbent gov did this and this and this, and lowered taxes....

HUH? Every tax I know of went up, wheelage tax, property tax, income tax, fees the government changes all went up....

HUH?

Hard to swallow that election campaign......

Paul

I bought a farm in 2007 and the taxes were 1800 they went up about 100 per year until I sold it this year and the new buyer is paying 2700 per year. This is in central WV and the economy sucks. If you question the assessor they give you a goobly ---- answer and you are left with that. No recourse.

I bought a 5.5 acre property, undeveloped, next to my property. I paid a fair price. The owner and I had been talking about it for several years. When I got the new assessment for next year, first since I bought it, and it was 1/3rd of what I paid. I think I'm happy since our taxes are based on assessed value. However, there is a piece of me that makes me question the price I paid.

It was fairly easy, or so I thought, to have a re-assessment here.

It took some time, and a bunch of talking to a 'yes man'. He finally got done talking, and I thought that I was really onto something big.

They lowered my taxes by a whopping $9 a year, but only for two years, then it would jump back to the full rate.

No one on the planet would ever pay a price for my home at what they assessed it at. Absolute insanity!

Dad owned a 5 acre wood lot. But the rail road took off a half acre.

He went to the tax meeting - this was back in the 70s - and got it corrected to 4.5 acres.

When the tax bill came, they had upped the valuation 20% to 'make up' for the lost acreage....

Couldn't win back then either.

Paul

One of my family members contested and got the reduction, in WA State. I have also heard of others who contested the Assessment Valuation, also got a reduction.

My taxes went down two years in a row...for the actual property tax valuation portion. But the portions paid to the school system and the city went up. The school board here has a limit they can raise the assessment each year but they max it out every year. UGH. It is worse the next township over where taxes are just utterly through the roof.

What makes me so mad is that they can end up taxing people right out of their homes. I'm not in that situation but I know other people who are. I know someone who has a small 2 bedroom rambler built in the 1960's on a one acre lot that is paying nearly 3K in taxes. That's just robbery.

Yeah, elections are coming...

I'm in Wi and we have high taxes too. I bought an apartment building in a small town a few years ago for much less than the "market value" as listed on the tax assessment. I called our assessor and asked him where he came up with the figure. He told me that the most accurate measure of market value was from an actual sale of the building. When I told him I had just purchased it, he said to send over the closing statement with the sale price. I did, and he changed the market value to what the building actually sold for. Any "arm's length" sale should be accepted as the market value, as that, by definition, is what it is....I would use this argument in court to have my property revalued correctly if there was a recent sale.

Kasota is getting quite a 'wild frontier' reputation the past few years, not in a good way. As close as it is, only get there for supplies for my Polaris.

Minnesota changed the way the 'homestead credit' is figured - actually changed the name of it too. It was a program where 40% or s of you property taxes were forgiven if the property was what you lived on or were an owner/operator of. They made it a very complicated formula that is now hard to define of course.....

It got changed where housing stayed about the same if you live there, but any business or farm or rental property lost out on any rebate at all and or got increased mill rates. So anyone working with their property trying to earn income from it got an extreme property tax increase. Well, cities can set up special tax districts to lower property taxes on the bigger businesses, but hat doesn't apply to the common small business of course.....

Minnesota, land of 10,000 taxes.

Paul

I just don't see the problem. The op started with 2.5 X ????? and in one talk got it down to 1.5 X ????
That's pretty good for one year.
If we imagine that ???? is $1000 that means that in one year her taxes went from $2500 to $1500 a $1000 reduction!
So send him a thank You card and go talk with him every year, be nice and bring cigars and pretty soon You are paying $500 !
Remember He probably has to justify any reductions paste a certain percent .

im not sure about other states but here in Oklahoma property taxes go to the schools, and that's what driving are property taxes higher every year, it wont be long before i wont be able to pay my taxes, seems like every year the schools around my area need millions of new dollars for new toys they want

I showed up at the board with a copy of an assessment done by a certified property assessor from a local bank. The county had accessed the value of my land at $160K. I had an assessment which showed a value of $40K. After about 5 minutes of talking I informed them I had an assessment and showed it to them. After about 3 minutes of each board member looking at it they ruled to lower the value to $40K.

Being an election year helped I'm sure.

It's best to bring a real assessment from a realtor or qualified individual when fighting assessments. Also don't forget the assessed value may not reflect your tax amount. You look at your tax rate also. If you get a real market value appraisal you might be pleasantly surprised to find you may be way under what you should be. I'd do that before I make too many waves. It's happened to me. I know it's not fair. You should get to pay taxes on what you payed for it. But then everyone would be selling their children their homes for 1$ lol.

I sit on the board of adjustments for our township.

You don't need an appraiser. The whole reason the county has an appraiser is to determine what the property would sell for on the open market. Property is only worth what someone will pay for it and what someone will sell it for -- period. I might think my property is worth millions but if nobody will pay that for it then its not worth it.

Appraisers only offer an opinion. Your transaction trumps their opinion.

So, all you need to do is show that it was not a distressed sale and show what you paid for it and that's what its worth. Because that's what it sold for on the open market.

My county assessor tripled my property value. I asked her when and where closing was cause I wanted to sell it to that fool. She couldn't produce a buyer for that assessment and returned my assessment back to what it was.

Makes no difference. The value of a place is what a willing buyer will pay and no more. My neighbor bought at the end of the oil boom here. She over paid for what she bought and won't sell for less. She's asking for 40,000 on 10 acres with a 25,000 building liability unfit to live in and a 55 gallon drum for a septic tank. Net value is less than 15,000.

I paid 13,000 to live next door on better property.

Ever heard of the poor woman in the Bible repeatedly making her case. She finally won.

I had some government people giving me the run around. I called the boss and complained. I called every 15 minutes. Got immediate results from multiple people.

Can't chellange property assessmen/taxes
 

Not always true,
been there done that. Distressed properties don't matter. I fought many times on rentals or tax auction purchased properties and my own home. Anytime I had a qualified individual backing me up I had no problems.

The king of Norway used to tax Imports based on Value. The Captain was asked to give a value and the kings men used that.
Was there a catch?
Not really just that the king had right to
Buy the cargo at that price!


Would you go for a deal like that?

An update.

The Tax Court still has not scheduled a trial date so when I got the valuation notice this spring, that the taxes due in 2016 are based on, I filed another appeal with the County Board. Got a phone call today from the county Assessor. We worked out a deal where the assessed value of my property is $1400 over what I paid for it and that will be the value for the last 3 years. That means the assessed value will come down between $13,000 and $9,000 for each of the last 3 years. The taxes will then also come down and the difference will be refunded to me. It's not quite what I wanted but it's close.

I have to go mow the grass before it gets too hot. Darn it feels funny to be worried about the heat when I had a fire in the wood stove 2 days ago. More later.

Congratulations !

Well done!

That's the clue. Assessors are not necessarily appraisers. That's were you have them by the you know what, if you have an appraisal by a state licensed appraiser. Once you ask the assessor for their credentials as an appraiser it's usually game over. The board should honor the appraisal and adjust the assessment accordingly.

I'm going to count this as a win and move on but before I do I just want to vent a minute.

What really frosts my butt is that the county is assessing property at much higher values than they are allowed by law. This is a much easier way to raise taxes than putting a referendum before voters to raise the tax rate.

The county gets away with the too high assessments because they lie to the taxpayer and make it a bureaucratic nightmare to challenge them. Many taxpayers are intimidated by the lies and don't challenge them. Most of those that see through the lies give up because of the bureaucratic nonsense they encounter. Only someone paying a large amount of over-taxation will go to the trouble of hiring an attorney and challenging the assessment.

This means that most folks are paying too much property tax. All of the ones I have talked to don't challenge the assessment because of the above and the perception that you will incur the wrath of the assessor if you do.

Then there is us retired folks with a long cold winter and too much time on our hands. I think the assessor caved when he realized that I had done my homework and wasn't going away.

This is not the country I learned about in school.

Rant over.

Here in NY, there are companies that will appeal your property taxes for you. You sign a contract and they get half of what they get the taxes reduced by. If there is no decrease, you don't pay. I would do that in a heartbeat!

It may be cheaper to hire a licensed appraiser instead. Why give money away? Do the math.