Anyone ever appeal their property tax assessment and win?

[Bigtanker]

We just received our new property tax assessment and let's just say, No ****ing way. The 2021 assessment was about what the asking price for the house when we bought it in September. We paid about 7% over asking price. The new assistant is a full 35% higher than the 2021 assessment.

There is a service locally that will fight this for us. It's under $200. But has anyone ever done this themselves and been successful? How hard is it? What needs to be done? I have no clue about this but if it's just a few forms and explanation, I'd attempt it myself.

 

[Jaybird1980]

We just received our new property tax assessment and let's just say, No ****ing way. The 2021 assessment was about what the asking price for the house when we bought it in September. We paid about 7% over asking price. The new assistant is a full 35% higher than the 2021 assessment.

There is a service locally that will fight this for us. It's under $200. But has anyone ever done this themselves and been successful? How hard is it? What needs to be done? I have no clue about this but if it's just a few forms and explanation, I'd attempt it myself.

Wow. I don't have any answers for you, but will be paying attention. I was not very happy with the 10% jump on mine. I would be really unhappy with 35%

 

[KittySlayer]

A few years ago I simply stopped in at the Assessor’s office and asked them about how they got my value. We chatted a bit how I felt there were errors incorrect assumptions. She made an adjustment.

Key is to smile, don’t be a jerk, have some flexibility, listen(!), politely point out where you think there errors assumptions need adjusted. Show up at a quiet time and don’t wait until the deadline.

Worse case is you don’t come to a mutual agreement and you do a formal appeal.

 

[indyartisan]

Yes, 2 years ago.
Form 130 and a short talk with the assessor here in Hamilton Co.
It was easy.
It seems if they are going to raise the assessments so much they should lower the rate.
Of course they love spending other people’s money on their pet projects so we are going to get a lot of push back.

 

[WebSnyper]

I just filed one online in Hendricks County. I probably should have spent more time on it, but they made it pretty easy. Look up your county assessors office and see if they offer a way to do it online. No idea if it will be approved or not. Our assessment was up 35+% over what we paid for the house in late 2019.

 

[rosejm]

I had similar experiences in my 2nd year of ownership. Assessment doubled with zero improvements.
I made an appointment, spoke with someone in the Assessor's office. We quickly saw there was an issue and came to an agreement.

 

[bwframe]

 

[mom45]

Wow. I don't have any answers for you, but will be paying attention. I was not very happy with the 10% jump on mine. I would be really unhappy with 35%

Is your township one that passed the fire territory? I think I that alone added 6%.

 

[Ingomike]

We just received our new property tax assessment and let's just say, No ****ing way. The 2021 assessment was about what the asking price for the house when we bought it in September. We paid about 7% over asking price. The new assistant is a full 35% higher than the 2021 assessment.

There is a service locally that will fight this for us. It's under $200. But has anyone ever done this themselves and been successful? How hard is it? What needs to be done? I have no clue about this but if it's just a few forms and explanation, I'd attempt it myself.

My understanding is you need data to back up your claims unless there is an obvious mistake. What are other sales in the neighborhood since you bought? The assessment change is based off of the trending of a two year period, unless it is your time for a complete reassessment. Counties usually divide the county into thirds or quarters and do full on reassessments of one of those segments each year.

Never will forget I appealed an assessment because the square footage was too much, I took the blueprints that show the accurate square footage and they would not change it. I said I would do a formal appeal so they offered to make it a different number, we negotiated a known number, only government is that dumb…

 

[mark40sw]

I did years ago. Made an appointment and met with county assessor.

Best to show up with data of like properties (age, size...) in your area if your county has a site that list public info on property taxes. A realtor can be a friend looking up comparisons on recent sales in your area to compare yours to.

When I sat down with them, they valued my property to very recent built houses. I pointed out in a very close similar area with houses, much closer to mine in age, were assessed at a much lower value.

They did adjust mine down after that.

 

[churchmouse]

These new assessments are taking advantage of the current housing market.
Prices are up 35% + across the board.
My son just moved back to Indy from up north. He had to pay these insane prices after 6 months of searching. Finally succumbed to the madness.
The tax people are drooling over this.

 

[Skullglide]

Big tanker, I am in pretty much the same boat. I am going to appeal my 30% increase.

 

[Destro]

Yes. I pulled the records of similar properties in the neighborhood assessed less and submitted it with the application. The burden is supposed to be in them over 10% I think? Mine was well over 10% and they offered no evidence.

Sent from my SM-A515U1 using Tapatalk

 

[yetti462]

Just paid mine, there goes several guns and ammo purchases.

 

[Hardscrable]

I believe you are in Elk. Co. ? I appealed a commercial, rental office building in Goshen and won. However was not based on new assessment. It was after the downturn/crash. Prior tenant paid taxes & insurance plus monthly rent. Property was paying net R.O.I. 9% . Lost tenant, unrented for 2 years, once new tenant was found the rent decreased by 65% plus I then paid races, insurance, etc. Was a process and assessor’s office was not encouraging or extreemly helpful. However I argued the actual market value of the property itself had drastically been reduced, provided paperwork and calculations to support my claim, and won. It can be done within established guidelines.

 

[Drewski]

I used to appeal our very generously increased assessment every year in Chicago, much to our benefit, but that was a different situation I'd say. Having reviewed now the second prop tax bill since buying in IN, I don't see much wiggle room. Our taxes did go up by 11-12%. First, that was strictly due to reassessment, which is good - no change in tax rate, which is something that happened regularly in Crook County - and second, the reassessment change looks to be quite a bit less than the comp sales would indicate. Sure, that's going to change eventually, as the Obiden cartel continues to run the economy into the ground, but right now I don't see that we have much of an argument.

But hey, it never hurts to try.

 

[WebSnyper]

My understanding is you need data to back up your claims unless there is an obvious mistake. What are other sales in the neighborhood since you bought? The assessment change is based off of the trending of a two year period, unless it is your time for a complete reassessment. Counties usually divide the county into thirds or quarters and do full on reassessments of one of those segments each year.

Never will forget I appealed an assessment because the square footage was too much, I took the blueprints that show the accurate square footage and they would not change it. I said I would do a formal appeal so they offered to make it a different number, we negotiated a known number, only government is that dumb…

When I did mine in Hendricks earlier this week, you could pick comparables on the website. It was done via the Beacon site.

I should have put more time into it but we'll see how this goes.

 

[eldirector]

We did, right after we moved in, and after our first assessment jumped up. Their argument was that it just old (correct). My argument was that "fair market value" was exactly what I paid, not what they think I SHOULD have paid. They adjusted it down.

But, the .gov will get their pound of flesh one way or another.

 

[femurphy77]

Not direct apples to apples but when we bought our place we also bought a neighboring 2 acre lot. It was zoned ag but they rezoned it residential when we bought it. I went down and talked to them and filled out the necessary paperwork and they changed it back to ag.

 

[jkaetz]

We refinanced in 2020, imagine that, the assessment for 2021 matched the valuation for refinancing exactly. Roughly a 10% increase from when we bought in 2018. Fortunately they aren't using Zillow's valuation as that is up ~45%. So much for capping the property tax at 1% when home values are going up by that much.