I Feel For You, But Just Cannot Reach You

Here we go again. It’s the biannual jousting match with the St. Louis County Assessor’s office. Yesterday, an assessor was by when we were not home and left his card. Reason for assessment? “Increase of more than 15% in a property’s appraised value.” What? In this market? I found out they want to increase my appraised value by 20 percent. TWENTY PERCENT?

In 2003, 2005, and 2007 I have successfully appealed hikes in my assessment through of the Board of Equalization. The problem is there are few, if any, really comparable sales for the assessors to look at. So they seem to punt each and every time. I have a house that is over 30 years old in a neighborhood where most houses are 10-15 years old. Lots of nearby McMansions. I have a property that is a combination of residential and agricultural. Not many of those left around within the 5,000 foot radius the county uses for comparables. I could go on, but the conclusion is they always over-appraise my property.

So, in the above-mentioned years, I have amassed evidence to support my case and have gone through the full appeal process. Usually this means meeting with a member of the assessor’s office who tells you their appraisal is correct, then a mediator who either comes to some agreement with you and the assessor’s office or pushes you on to the third stage: a hearing in front of the Board of Equalization. This whole process takes a couple of hours, but it takes me several days to get together my appeal.

Today I spent about a half hour on the phone with a very understanding and helpful member of the assessor’s office. He spent quite a bit of time looking through my files and agreed with me that there was a problem. He saw that last time the Board of Equalization had agreed to lower the appraisal they had made by 24 percent. That’s TWENTY-FOUR PERCENT. And the person from the assessor’s office I had in 2007 during the appeal said that how they appraised my property was faulty. As she said (and I have said for many years), there are few, if any, comparable sales to judge what my property is worth. Unfortunately, she is no longer with the assessor’s office.

You’d think they might revise how they appraise properties like mine based on 2003, 2005, and 2007 lowering of their appraisals by the Board of Equalization. Nope. Seems like they’re locked into an algorithm and cannot vary from it. While the man on the phone sympathized with me and saw how their methods seem to miss the mark, both he and his supervisor said my only recourse was to go through the entire appeal process like I had the last three times.

So, once again I will be busy combing through recent real estate sales and trying to come up with an array of houses and properties to show the problem. The man at the assessor’s office said I should bring in the successful appeals I’ve had before and ask that somehow this not be repeated in 2011. Hmmmm. Did that in 2007. Sure had significant results, huh?