Need to Contest your Property Taxes?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Turner on March 30, 2009 at 8:59am

Here is the information to appeal in the State of Maryland:

THE ASSESSMENT APPEAL PROCESS

Property owners sometimes feel that the department's estimate of their property value is wrong. The assessment appeal process is available to allow property owners the opportunity to dispute the value determined by the department. Property values rise and fall to reflect the market. A property owner should file an appeal when they believe that their property is not valued at its current market value.

Appeals may be filed on three occasions:
1. upon receipt of an assessment notice;
2. by a petition for review; and
3. upon purchase of property between January 1 and June 30.

APPEAL ON REASSESSMENT
Property owners will normally receive a Notice of Assessment every three years that shows the old market value as well as the new market value. The new value reflects the market influence and other conditions affecting the property from the time of the last assessment.

If you decide to appeal, the first step is to reply to the Notice of Assessment by signing and returning the appeal form within 45 days of the date of the notice. Following this, a personal or telephone hearing will be scheduled. Appeals can also be made in writing, eliminating the need for a hearing.

PETITION FOR REVIEW
If events have occurred since your last regular assessment that you believe have caused your property value to decline or if you failed to respond to the Notice of Assessment within the required time frame, you may file for a petition for review by January 1 of any year. Click here to obtain a Petition form. The completed form should be mailed to your local assessment office. After filing the petition, you will be scheduled for a hearing; or, if you prefer, your written submission can be reviewed eliminating the need for a hearing.

APPEAL UPON PURCHASE
If you purchase a property and the property is transferred after January 1 but before July 1, you may file an appeal within 60 days of the transfer. After filing a written appeal, you will be scheduled for a hearing; or, if you prefer, your written appeal can be reviewed instead of having a hearing.

FIRST STEP - SUPERVISOR'S LEVEL
The first level of the appeal process, known as the Supervisor's level, is informal. You will present your case to an assessor designated by the Supervisor of Assessments. Typically, hearings at this level take approximately 15 minutes.
You can obtain a copy of the worksheet for the property free of charge from your local assessment office. The information on the worksheet will be reviewed at the time of the hearing to assure its accuracy.

For assistance in estimating the value of your property, you can obtain sales data from various sources, including: sales listings located in the local assessment office; commercially available sales reports and other information available at local libraries; local Real Estate offices; personal surveys of recently sold comparable properties in the area; and local listings of sales transactions in the newspaper. For a nominal fee, worksheets of comparable properties may be obtained from the assessment office.

To be most effective, you should:
• Focus on those points that affect the value of your property.
• Indicate why the Total New Market Value does not reflect the market value of the property.
• Identify any mathematical errors on the worksheet or inaccurate information describing the characteristics of the property (such as the number of bathrooms, fireplaces, etc.).
• Provide examples of sales of comparable properties which support your findings as to the value of the property.
• Avoid the following issues since they are not relevant to the value under appeal: comparison to past values, percent of increase, additional metropolitan costs, the amount of the tax bill, properties in other taxing jurisdictions, and services rendered or not rendered.

Your first level hearing should be viewed as an opportunity to present evidence which would indicate that the department's value of the property is inaccurate.

SECOND STEP - PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENT APPEAL BOARD
Following the hearing, you will receive a final notice. If you disagree with the decision, you can appeal to the next step which is to the Property Tax Assessment Appeal Board. The second step appeal must be filed within 30 days from the date of the final notice from the Supervisor of Assessments.

There is an independent appeal board comprised of 3 local residents in each of the counties and Baltimore City. Property owners generally need no assistance at this step, no fees are required, and they are free to present any supporting evidence. You can obtain a list of the comparable properties that will be used by the assessment office before the Board if you file a written request to the assessment office at least 15 days before the scheduled date of the hearing.

THIRD STEP - MARYLAND TAX COURT
If you are dissatisfied with the decision made by the Appeal Board, you can file an appeal within 30 days of the date of the board's decision to the Maryland Tax Court. The Maryland Tax Court is an independent body appointed by the Governor. Although the proceedings are more formal than the first 2 levels, it is still considered to be an informal, administrative hearing. Property owners who are in disagreement with the Tax Court's decision can appeal further through the regular judiciary system. Here you will probably need legal counsel.

RECAP
The assessment appeal process is a mechanism intended to assure an accurate property valuation. If you believe that the value placed upon your property is higher than it should be and if you can provide supporting evidence (such as sales information for properties comparable to your own), then it is in your best interest to appeal.


Source: SDAT

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Permalink Reply by BBT Real Estate Group on August 21, 2009 at 4:24pm

All about property taxes (and how to contest your assessment)


Property taxes are one of the many hidden costs of owning a home. They’re not (directly) factored into the purchase price of a house or condo, and they’re not as obvious as the power or water bills. Yet they are a substantial annual cost, and homeowners can’t afford to ignore them – in fact, with some attention and a little research, you might be able to save a few hundred dollars every year.

But first, where do these numbers come from? Property taxes comprise two elements – the tax rate and the assessment.

The tax rate is usually determined at the city or county level, though some states impose an additional state-level property tax. These taxes rates are expressed in an amount per $100 of value. For example, in the District of Columbia, the property tax rate is $.85 per $100 of value. These rates vary from city to city and county to county, but most areas around metropolitan D.C. have rates below $1 per $100.

The assessment is a number that reflects what the government thinks your home’s fair market value is. It’s based on many factors such as location, value of nearby homes and the features of your house. As such, with all other factors equal, a house with a deck will be assessed at higher value than a similar house with no deck. These assessments are supposed to reflect what your home would sell for if you put it on the market.

The frequency of these assessments varies by state – in D.C., they’re done annually. Maryland assesses properties once every three years, and in Virginia, it varies from county to county.

Your property taxes are just the tax rate times the assessed value. So, if your house was assessed at $1 million and you live in Fairfax County, Virginia, where the property tax rate is $.92 per $100 of value, your annual property taxes would be $9,200. That’s a lot of money!
But there’s a good chance you can reduce your property taxes. As even the Fairfax County Web site declares, “Assessing property is not an exact science.” Assessments are “typically [based on a] mass estimating process, not individual property appraisals,” they add. Using such a broad method inevitably leads to some miscalculations.

You probably want a little more precision when it comes to the government taking your hard-earned money, right? Fortunately, if you feel that the value of your house is lower than the assessment claims it is, you have recourse – an appeal.

As with the rest of the tax issues, the appeals processes differ among states, but the general procedure is usually similar. The first step is a simple supervisory appeal. If you disagree with the assessed value of your home, all you have to do is file a form stating your intentions to appeal and the basis for doing so. You then will have a hearing with an assessor.

At this meeting, and all the others that follow, research and evidence are crucial. Just saying, “You got it wrong” won’t convince the government to lower you property tax bill. Instead, you need to conclusively prove that your house is worth less than it was assessed at. You can do that by bring documentation of comparable houses.

If your house is 2,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms, a good comparable might be a 2,100 square foot house with 3 bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. If that house sold last month for $450,000, but your house was assessed at $520,000, you have a good case and are likely to get some relief. The key is to pick comparables that are very similar to your house. The more like your house, the better, and the more comparables you can cite in support of your argument, the more likely you are to win your appeal.

Of course, you may not win the supervisory appeal. In that case, the next step is a hearing before a local tax assessment appeal board. Again, it varies by state, but usually a hearing before a board is similar to the supervisory appeal – it just has a larger audience and deliberative body. In most jurisdictions, you and the assessor will each present arguments. Again, the quality of your research is the primary determinant of your success. If you find many comparables, and you make sure they are very similar to your home in quality and features, then you should be able to convince the board to lower your property taxes.

Should the appeals board also rule against you, your final resort is a tax court. Proceedings are more formal, but an attorney is still not necessary. Again, you will present evidence that your house is overvalued – pointing out comparable houses that sold for less and showing negative, value-reducing features of your home that were overlooked in the initial assessment. The assessor will try to argue that his or her valuation was correct.

Through all of this process, there are a couple important things to remember. The first and most important thing to remember is research, research, research! Contrary to what you might think, the assessor is not your enemy or out to stick you with a high tax bill, but nevertheless, you must convincingly argue that his or her assessment of your home’s value is too high.

The second thing to remember is to always keep the costs and benefits of appealing an assessment at the front of your decisions. You can hire a lawyer or your own assessor to help you in your appeal, but seeing as their services often cost more than $100 per hour, the costs of their assistance may negate or outweigh the benefits of having your tax bill reduced. Unless your house was overvalued by hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is rather unlikely, you’re likely best traversing this path on your own.

Still, don’t be scared off from appealing your tax bill. You have little to lose because appealing is usually free, and you can save yourself several hundred dollars on your tax bill. So if your next property tax bill seems excessive, consider appealing.




Source: Drodio.com

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