Is Your Property Tax Assessment Outrageous

When you receive your property tax bill, you need to go over it very closely. You need to look at the fair market value and the assessed value. These two different things have two different meaning when figuring your property tax liability. Many people have complaints about how the assessment of homes or properties is done. The county assessor does not enter your home or property, they look at the outside for a description of the property to compare to other similar properties in the area to determine your assessed value. This is common practice and may not always be the true assessed value of your property.

Now this assessed value does not take into consideration bad roofs, cracking interior walls, bad foundations, windows that are falling apart or anything else wrong with the house. They also do not see if you have done any repairs or behind the scenes remodeling so to say. All the assessor sees is the outside of the property. If you know your assessed value is outrageous because of deteriorating conditions, you can appeal the property tax assessed value. You would do this to have the assessed value of the home lowered, thus reducing your overall tax liability.

If your home is assessed at $100,000 and you need a new roof, which includes trusses and some structural preservation that is going to cost $50,000, then you might think the assessed value of your property is over exaggerated. If this has happened to you, you can seek a property tax lawyer or a consultant to give you some advice on the appeals process. You do not want to pay taxes on a property that is half of the assessed value than what it should be at this specific time. If you wait until the next year, it may be to late to have anything done.

You need to take some steps to protect yourself when filing an appeal of property taxes, which a lawyer can point out to you. If you property is in that much need of repair, the city may deem it necessary to condemn the property until repairs are made. This is all a part of the system. If your repairs are not life threatening, but more so they lower the value of the property, then a property tax lawyer can argue this point for you.

You can see how important it is to check your property tax bill to see exactly what is said about your property. Many people just get the bill and pay it without really giving it any thought. If you go to sell the property and find out that the assessed value is to high and you are selling for less than that, you will find out, you have been paying taxes that are exaggerated.

At this time, you have no recourse to recoup any of that money. It is better to check the bill and decide if you feel comfortable about the new assessed value of your property.

- Oliver Bugarin, Webmaster

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