FOIA?

May be worth a shot to ask someone what to ask for, but an FOIA request might be enough to scare them.

No idea where you are, but here on Long Island challenging tax assessments is a big business.

Find someone that does it for a living. Around here they will analyze your situation for free. If they think that can get it lowered they will do the work for usually 1 to 2 times the amount that they save you the first year.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

In my neck of the woods, the companies that are willing to fight for the assessment work on contingency basis, where they take home like 50% of the difference they save you in taxes.

. . . might have just been escorted out of the tax assessors office by security.

Might have? What does that even mean? That you're not sure whether you were escorted out?

Sounds like there's more to the story.

I'm not saying that you don't have a case, that they're in the right, and you're in the wrong. I don't have the slightest idea. Just that you haven't provided enough for anyone to form an opinion and help out.

It's possible that you didn't approach the situation in a manner that was likely to be effective.

Was just being a bit facetious. I was escorted out, not for being inappropriate or anything but rather for not accepting that the hearing was over when the leader of the board told me he didn't have to answer questions and went through all the official motion stuff. It wasn't too big of a deal, just obviously didn't go great...


Not much more to the story really... and yeah totally agree didn't provide details. Wasn't really looking to get into all the details, but I'll provide a few. Total assessed value went up 52% from last year. $/sq ft assessed value (for my 16 year old house) was way higher than brand new, nice, custom homes in the immediate area. Multiple glaring issues with the adjustments used by the county, the most egregious being garage space adjustment of all things. When that adjustment went in the county's favor, the garage space adjustment per sq ft was over 10X what it was when it went in my favor. That's 10 times, not 10%. I asked for an explanation on that and that's what got the "I don't have to answer your questions" response and got me tossed out of the game...


It is possible, but I approached the situation best I know how, with factual data and by being professional and courteous. Never lost my temper, no cursing, etc... On the way out, I professionally and courteously let the board know I though the whole deal was a scam, but had to get my moneys worth a bit..

From what I have heard from others, at least around Michigan, your story is pretty much how it goes. Facts don't matter, once the set your appraisal its set. About the only success is if your property changed somehow that the city didn't account for. No joke, the only one I know that was successful, a storm had taken out a large portion of big trees on the lot, and they had city numbers for $$ per tree, and the city had not account for that, and they reappraised. Comps and other things are ignored I think cause they feel there methodology is sound and if they say it could be faulty, they open up to changing all of them.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

I would find an attorney who specializes in property tax appeals. Sounds like you did your homework and have a reasonable case. On the commercial side, the company I work for has to sue the county pretty regularly to get a fair tax assessment.

No.. no success.

You need to find an appraiser and a lawyer that specialize in this sort of thing. And they don't work pro bono. By the time you've spent your way to a lower assessment, you'll need years of tax savings to have made it worth it. Probably want to crunch the numbers and see if it's even worth pursuing. Your local government has you by the acorns, they know it, and they like it that way.

Edit: disclaimer, taxes out in the sticks aren't too high around here. In a city, with high property values, and a significant overcharge I could see ROI being worth it a lot quicker.

I think the property tax protest business (in Houston) is a scam preying on the libertarian types who are convinced they are over-taxed.

I have done the I-file protest a couple of times over the years. It has worked our well for me and it takes 2 minutes to fill out. I can say definitively there is no way someone could have delivered twice the reduction that I got just by I-filing.

To me something seems undemocratic about hiring someone to protest your local tax.

I tried twice to fight my property tax assessment. Both times, I had multiple comps and a recent appraisal indicating I was overassessed...Both times I was thanked for my complete presentation and was denied within minutes. As an aside, during one of my interactions with the assessment board, the three prior people that contested their assessments had their request for a reduction accepted and their tax bill was reduced. Each of these three presentations consisted of an individual insisting their "husband was having a hard time finding work and they couldn't afford the increase. If you raise my taxes we will lose our home."

I never went back.

I can't think of one time EVER that my property was over valued for tax purposes. Many times they went up, even substantially, and I didn't like the increase, but never valued at more than I thought it was worth.

Too many people go on percentages. IE, my property went up by 50% on the tax role. So fucking what. Was it still market or below value? My home is on the tax roles at just over $500,000. I paid more than that to build it. I paid several hundred thou for the lot. I wouldn't sell it for anything less than 7 figures. I don't complain that it is under valued. I won't complain if they raise the value as long as it is within market value.

Haha, yep. Sadly this is really all there is to it...

As others have said, at least consult with an attorney who specializes in this kind of thing. Not just someone who claims to be able to handle all cases, but someone who knows the inner workings, the people involved, etc., and most important, whether you've got a chance and if so, how to get there.