How to reduce your new increased property tax bill
It’s property tax increase time!
Get
a light green notice from Webster J Guillory
he’s increasing your
property tax bill?
It looks innocent enough.
It says (THIS IS NOT A BILL).
It’s a tax increase.
The State of California is broke.
Statewide homeowners, property owners
are getting these increases.
Property tax increases are determined
by home values, not made up by local governments.
Want to know what formula
your assessor used to calculate increases in your property taxes? Give me a
call.
Proposition 13 is getting push
back.
Notice on your bill the assessor may have
increased the base year amount
of value.
On one of mine they increased the basis (the original sales price)
about twenty percent. This could mean thousands of dollars in property tax
increase for my bill. It is an error.
Some jurisdictions use a home's
actual market value,
while others use a percentage of a property's worth.
Whatever value is used, it's
multiplied by the local tax rate to compute the property's final bill (about
1.25%) As home values now are increasing
counties are looking for extra revenue. They will up your assessed values
sometimes in great excess of the real value. Can you see them rubbing their
hands together?
The National Taxpayers Union
estimates that sixty percent of taxable property in the United States is
over-assessed.
The tax man gets his money. They
don’t make the process easy on purpose. Elderly and minorities are the least
likely to appeal.
DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER
15th in Orange County.
This in itself is a
trick. Many counties, Riverside for example made the window of opportunity to
file very small just so homeowners and property owners won’t file.
Deadlines, along with the appeals
process, vary in each county in California. The time allowed for an appeal is
short. It once was true that you could appeal year round, and as often as you
like. Counties made up rules (likely not legal) as to keep the number of
appeals or tax reductions down. You may have only 30 days to appeal. Or in some
smaller Northern California County offices you could have up to 120 days.
If your request for an appeal
arrives at the assessor's office even an hour after 5:00 on the protest deadline,
so sorry too bad. The wait is imposed until the following year (or sometimes
the next assessment, which could be longer) before you can appeal. Counties
have a habit of losing these appeals. I have read some statistics that twenty
percent of the appeals disappear. Send by certified mail AND go get a stamped
copy from the counter.
Assessments can be appealed on two
grounds: a mistake in the assessment of your house or an assessment at a higher
rate than comparable homes.
County appraisers also may use
historical information that's wrong. A home's square footage, for example,
might have been incorrectly calculated on original construction documents.
Obvious mistakes aren't difficult
to spot. Is the inhabitable square footage figure correct? Does the assessment
say your home has four bedrooms when it only has three? But you also should
consider checking the assessment's accuracy by comparing it with a recent
appraisal of your property.
Make sure that any property
changes, particularly those that would negatively affect the value of your
home, are part of the assessment. New commercial building next door? Bluebird
Canyon residents and neighbors mostly failed to use the slide and loss of road
access to reduce their bills.
Don't forget any modifications or
additions you've made. If you've torn down a gazebo, removed a garage or taken
away something structural the value may be lower.
The other way to challenge an
assessment is to see how your home value is in reference to houses in your
neighborhood. Comparable means homes of the same size, age and general
location. They must be within 20% of the square footage, couple block proximity,
similar construction and age. You will need to know if they have a pool or
other improvements.
Learn the appeals procedure for the county
your property is located in. You can find the information on the county
government or tax assessor's website, and download the necessary forms. The
timing of your appeal is particularly important: San Francisco, for example,
accepts appeals of annual assessments only between July 2 and Sept. 15.
Need help? Call me I can walk you through
the fire.
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Call your tax assessor and find how they
determined your value (if they will answer the phone). If you can show she wrote down the wrong
square footage for your house or the number of bedrooms, or that she missed an
exemption or deduction you're entitled to under the law you are on strong
footing.
File your appeal according to exact county
procedures. This will often include paying a fee. You'll be notified when your
appeals hearing is scheduled. If you don’t get notified, file again before the
deadline.
Collect evidence that your house was
overpriced. You may need to hire a Realtor or appraiser to give you a broker
price opinion. I have a program that can get you on the Multiple Listing
Service to find comps. You will need to not just state the comp address, sale
date in past 60 days, and square footage- you will need photographs and a
description of why the house is similar. If you can find comparable properties
that sold for substantially less around the time that your house was appraised,
this would be evidence that your value isn't what the assessor states.
You can try using the assessments on
similar houses for the same purpose, however getting access to the bills is not
as easy as the Assessor can view from their computer software. In other words-
the Assessor has tools to argue back. Know your facts.
In California assessed value only rises two
percent each year until a house is sold and reassessed: If your neighbor bought
his house 10 years ago and you bought an identical model last month the taxes
will be different.
Attend the hearing, or send a
representative in your place. Failure to make your scheduled hearing will
probably result in the board rejecting your appeal. Be prepared with any forms
or documentation you're required to have.
You may need six copies of the papers.
Here’s the link to OC form. They do not make it easy.
You will need your bill to file the form.
Do not trust the online application alone.
