How to Dispute Your Property Tax Assessment
Experts estimate that 40% to 60% of homes in the U.S. are over-valued for tax purposes, but only around 5% of homeowners ever dispute their assessment. The majority of those who do are successful.
First Steps
If you decide to appeal your property assessment,
start by contacting your jurisdiction's assessor's office. Most municipalities offer information about the appeal process on their website. One important fact to learn is how assessments are calculated. For example, in areas with frequent home sales assessors are likely to use comparable sales data, whereas in less active areas they may use another method.
Do You Need Outside Help?
There is usually no direct cost associated with an appeal, and most homeowners find it reasonably simple to make an appeal on their own. I can be one of your best resources in this area. Please feel free to call me for information about recent home sales and market value trends in your neighborhood.
When Should You Appeal?
The assessment process and appeal deadlines vary. Often homeowners have 45 or 60 days after receiving a notice of change of value for their property to appeal the new value. If you find that your appeal deadline has expired for this tax billing cycle, save this email as a reference and begin gathering information for the next cycle - it will be here before you know it!
The Burden of Proof is On the Homeowner
The jurisdiction assumes that its assessment of your home's market value is correct, so it is up to you to provide evidence to the contrary.
The best proof is a recent sale of your home in an arms-length transaction. This means a sale that was not made under duress, such as due to a foreclosure, and not potentially affected by other factors such as being between members of the same family.
Other acceptable forms of proof include:
- A copy of the current listing of your home if it is for sale.
- A recent appraisal. (The several hundred dollars you'll invest in one can usually be recouped through lower taxes if the property assessment drops as a result.)
- Lower recent sales prices of homes (preferable five or more) that you can show are comparable to your home.
- Lower property value assessments of homes that you can show are comparable to your home.
- Income and expense information if the home is an investment property.
- Proof that the property value has been negatively affected, for example, by street widening that reduced the yard area, construction of a nearby freeway that increased road noise, or loss of view due to neighboring buildings adding upper levels.
- Proof of mistakes in the home's tax record, such as showing that the square footage is listed as higher than it really is.
Joe Light of Money Magazine recommends that you
discontinue your appeal if you can not find comparable properties that sold for at least 10% less than your assessed value.
Here's the link to his informative article.
King County Links
For more information on the appeal process in King County, visit the
King County Value Dispute web page, or call the assessor's office at (206) 296-7300. A summary of FAQs and contact information is also available on the
Appeals page.
Contact Me for Assistance
Before spending time on an appeal, or money on an appraisal, it makes sense for you to get an idea of how likely you are to succeed in the first place. Please give me a call before beginning your appeal so that I can research property values in your neighborhood and provide you with information that will help guide you toward a successful outcome.
By the way, if you have friends or colleagues who could use this type of information please tell them to contact me and I will be happy to help them out as well.
