Are you planning to appeal property tax on your real property? You must check the property cards for your home and your neighbors’ homes. You don’t have to worry about getting this since the information can be easily and lawfully obtained.
Check the Property Card for Your Home
You can get a copy of your property card from the Tax Assessor’s Office of the county where your home is located. You don’t even have to write a formal letter for it – just tell a staff member about your intent. You should be provided with a photocopy or print-out of the tax record/property card, which you can study at home.
Download the Free Guide to Appealing your Propery Tax
Your property’s tax record is the first document to check because it can contain incomplete and/or inaccurate information. You may then find the reason for your unjustifiably high property taxes for the applicable year.
You should ask yourself these questions when perusing your property tax record:
- Is your home classified as a residential property? In most jurisdictions, commercial and residential property have different tax rates due to residential exemptions so commercial is usually taxed higher.
- Is the land size and zoning of your property accurate? The changes in size and zoning classifications, if any, should be considered by the local assessors in determining the property’s fair market value.
- Is the living area and number of bedrooms and bathrooms reflected on the card accurate? These attributes will affect the fair market valuation estimate and tax on the property.
- Are the age and purchase price of the property accurately reflected? This is because depreciation and historical cost will also have an impact on the property’s assessed value.
- Are the improvements, defects and restrictions on the property correctly described? The property may have improvements that weren’t made or restrictions (e.g., easements) that weren’t specified.
- Are the deductions due to the property made? These can include homestead, senior citizen, and military deductions, which decrease the taxable value of the property.
If you find incorrect or incomplete information, you should inform the Tax Assessors’ Office as soon as possible, preferably before the deadline to file an appeal of property tax. In many cases, you don’t even have to file a formal appeal. You and the Tax Assessor can come to an official agreement about the revised value for your real property.
Check the Property Cards for Your Neighbor’s Homes
You may still be unsatisfied with your home’s assessed value for any reason. Your next step is to check the property cards for your neighbors’ homes. You’re neither snooping nor spying on them, especially as they may be doing the same.
Your goal here is to gather more information about whether your property has been fairly valued in comparison with other comparable properties. You have to look at two types of information, namely:
- How did the local assessors value the residential property similar to your own?
- How much are residential properties like yours currently selling for?
If you find similar homes with a taxable value lower than your own, and sales of similar properties that are lower than your taxable value, then your property may have been over-assessed. You should take into consideration various elements of comparison, like living area, number of bathrooms, etc. to be certain that your house isn’t superior to the properties you are comparing it to.
Conclusion
In case you proceed with your plan to appeal property tax, you should organize the abovementioned information into a presentation supporting a lower value. You may also want to hire an independent aproperty tax expert for a winning appeal.
