Tax Appeal Time
Your Government in Action..
Today I went before the Douglas County Board of Tax equalization to appeal a tax increase on my new home. I bought the house in 9/29/2009 for 64K and the bank had also assessed it at 65K.
The county first said it was worth 85.5K - then came down a bit to 80.5 K for my first appeal. However, I did buy it at 'fair market value' (the house sat for 8 months), so I thought this was a bit high and sent the estimate off for appeal.
After a 15 minute delay (the previous owner was disputing 3 properties), I had my time to present my case. I showed them the bill(s) of sale, plus the original HUD and Bank estimates. Then it was the county's turn. Two representatives were there, with laptops, pictures of my place and several worksheets of data. One thing that did come up - that my home was purchased at 0.52X that of the 2008 price.
(Sweet)
Then they presented their data - and soon noticed that other residents of the same age/size/acreage/location were at least 4 to 7K lower that their proposed counteroffer.
Whoops..!
Methinks they just shot themselves in the foot.
Plus the fact I had all my ducks in a row - that the board will likely rule in my favor, though I won't find out the exact amount for at least 2 to 5 working days.
Today I went before the Douglas County Board of Tax equalization to appeal a tax increase on my new home. I bought the house in 9/29/2009 for 64K and the bank had also assessed it at 65K.
The county first said it was worth 85.5K - then came down a bit to 80.5 K for my first appeal. However, I did buy it at 'fair market value' (the house sat for 8 months), so I thought this was a bit high and sent the estimate off for appeal.
After a 15 minute delay (the previous owner was disputing 3 properties), I had my time to present my case. I showed them the bill(s) of sale, plus the original HUD and Bank estimates. Then it was the county's turn. Two representatives were there, with laptops, pictures of my place and several worksheets of data. One thing that did come up - that my home was purchased at 0.52X that of the 2008 price.
(Sweet)
Then they presented their data - and soon noticed that other residents of the same age/size/acreage/location were at least 4 to 7K lower that their proposed counteroffer.
Whoops..!
Methinks they just shot themselves in the foot.
Plus the fact I had all my ducks in a row - that the board will likely rule in my favor, though I won't find out the exact amount for at least 2 to 5 working days.