Real Estate Taxes Redux
I have written before about the real estate assessment we received and that our dear county wanted to raise the assessed value on our house by 37 percent in the wondrous real estate year of 2009. And I have written about the whole process of trying to get the assessment reduced, getting together lots of information, and going to duke it out with the assessor’s office and, ultimately, getting relief from the Board of Equalization. It’s every two years I go through this exercise. They say mind games are good for old folks. Hmmmm.
Upon the advice of someone involved in the process, instead of filing my appeal as I have done in each of the last several two-year reappraisal cycles, I scheduled what is called “an informal conference” with a member of the appraiser’s office. I have been loath to do this in the past since my experience is that their job at such conferences is to just defend what the computer model has burped out for the assessed value and the homeowner doesn’t get anywhere. But, I thought I’d try.
I came to the meeting prepared with all the material I would put in a formal appeal, including the appeal form. A very nice young man from the assessor’s office first went through the basics of verifying building height, building style (wanted to know what percent of our first floor was stone as compared to siding), etc. After these opening pleasantries, he started looking through the material I had amassed. We got no further than the first chart showing the history of my assessments and reductions from the Board of Equalization over the last decade.
It seems that since I was sent my notice of assessed values, a supervisor had done a manual override on the system for our property and had come up with a value that was about the same as 2007. Ultimately, much to my surprise, the system worked. There must be some flag that kicks out properties with huge increases for a smell test.
So, no problem. Case closed. Would have been nice if I had gotten a new appraisal in the mail so I wouldn’t have had to go to this conference. And, as the nice man said, “See you in two years.” Guess the system isn’t totally fixed.
Upon the advice of someone involved in the process, instead of filing my appeal as I have done in each of the last several two-year reappraisal cycles, I scheduled what is called “an informal conference” with a member of the appraiser’s office. I have been loath to do this in the past since my experience is that their job at such conferences is to just defend what the computer model has burped out for the assessed value and the homeowner doesn’t get anywhere. But, I thought I’d try.
I came to the meeting prepared with all the material I would put in a formal appeal, including the appeal form. A very nice young man from the assessor’s office first went through the basics of verifying building height, building style (wanted to know what percent of our first floor was stone as compared to siding), etc. After these opening pleasantries, he started looking through the material I had amassed. We got no further than the first chart showing the history of my assessments and reductions from the Board of Equalization over the last decade.
It seems that since I was sent my notice of assessed values, a supervisor had done a manual override on the system for our property and had come up with a value that was about the same as 2007. Ultimately, much to my surprise, the system worked. There must be some flag that kicks out properties with huge increases for a smell test.
So, no problem. Case closed. Would have been nice if I had gotten a new appraisal in the mail so I wouldn’t have had to go to this conference. And, as the nice man said, “See you in two years.” Guess the system isn’t totally fixed.
posted by Bud Hirsch at 12:21 PM
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