How falling home values can lower your taxes
September 19, 2009 · Tagged with Taxes
While you are at it, check the assessor’s math, particularly with respect to assessment formulas. Some areas use full-market value, replacement value or sales price. Others use a fraction of the market value.
Next, locate three to five comparable properties and check your property against them, making adjustments for differences. Sales data are available from your local government, or a licensed real-estate agent.
“Look for disparities that cannot be explained away, like the age of other properties or better lot configuration, or view. If those things can’t explain why the assessment is so much higher than others, you may have grounds to appeal on equitability,” says Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, an advocacy group.
If you think your property value is unfairly high, your next step is to contact your local assessor. If the property information on record is inaccurate, the assessor may be able to lower your assessment without a formal appeal. But if an appeal before an appeals or equalization board is necessary, you will have to produce evidence to support your complaint. Bring an appraiser’s report, if you have one, and records of comparable sales along with any other supporting documentation, such as photos, a surveyor’s report and contractors’ estimates. If your appeal is turned down, additional appeals usually are heard by a state court.
For more information about how to file an appeal, a brochure is available for $6.95 from the National Taxpayers Union at www.ntu.org.
Experts say there are few drawbacks to applying to reduce your tax assessment. However, if you made additions and improvements to your home that were never properly recorded with your town — usually through a building permit — you might not receive a reduction, and could conceivably face an increased assessment.
Robert Chambers, administrator of the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision, which handles appeals in the Cleveland area, says the most common mistake homeowners make is failing to bring enough evidence about the house.
“Most of the time if a person is denied, it is because of lack of evidence,” Mr. Chambers says. “They say here is a similar bungalow or ranch, but they don’t adjust for age, square footage, etcetera, which is everything that a certified appraiser must do,” he says.
He suggests refraining from using a hearing as a forum to vent your rage at high taxes. “You are filing a legal affidavit that says the auditor’s value is wrong and I have evidence to show you that,” he says.