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Appealing tax valuations

April 25th, 2007 by Kenric

Last month I received a letter from the county stating a newly assessed value of my condo.  As usual, the valuation went up which meant higher taxes next time around.

I decided to appeal my valuation because the real estate market is in the tank and housing prices are going down.  There is no way that my property taxes should be rising for 2008 given that my property value has been declining.

You normally only have a month to appeal so if you plan on doing it, do it as soon as you get the letter.  Many times people just ignore the letter and then when their tax bill comes next year, they wish they would have done it.

Appealing your tax valuation is very easy.  You can do it online in many counties.  It is a very simple form where you input your Property Index Number (PIN) and choose or type in the reasoning behind your appeal.

You can simply enter in a few comparable properties with lower valuations, point out any mistakes in their classification of your home or write a reason.  I chose to write a reason.  I basically said that my condo values in the building have dropped 10% in the past year from $XXX to $XXX and that it does not make any sense that your valuation of my property should show an increase.

The whole process took about 3 minutes.  It’s that simple.  A week later I got confirmation that they’ve received my appeal.  Now I just have to sit back and wait and see what happens.

Posted in Real Estate | 4 Comments »
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