Property Tax Revaluation

[mota bhai 2,675]

So my township has a private firm doing revals of all property in the town, my townhouse included.

A guy from the firm came by a few months ago. He came in, took a look around, asked a few dumb questions ("are you running a business from your garage, if you are I need to take a look") and left.

Today, they sent me a letter informing me that the assessed value of my property was being adjusted upwards by about 85K with an explanation that the actual tax rate would likely decrease and my actual taxes for 2014 would depend on what that tax rate is. Could be higher, could be lower.

The letter also says the new assessed value is the estimated market value in October 2013. In my opinion, the value is low by about 30K.

The letter also tells me how to appeal, should I choose to.

Here's my question. How do I know if I should appeal or not, given that I literally have no idea what the impact of the new assessment will be on my taxes (since they haven't come up with the tax rate yet)?

Edited February 4, 2014 by mota bhai

[Sousuke 1,214]

So my township has a private firm doing revals of all property in the town, my townhouse included.

A guy from the firm came by a few months ago. He came in, took a look around, asked a few dumb questions ("are you running a business from your garage, if you are I need to take a look") and left.

Today, they sent me a letter informing me that the assessed value of my property was being adjusted upwards by about 85K with an explanation that the actual tax rate would likely decrease and my actual taxes for 2014 would depend on what that tax rate is. Could be higher, could be lower.

The letter also says the new assessed value is the estimated market value in October 2013. In my opinion, the value is low by about 30K.

The letter also tells me how to appeal, should I choose to.

Here's my question. How do I know if I should appeal or not, given that I literally have no idea what the impact will of the new assessment will be on my taxes (since they haven't come up with the tax rate yet)?

Do you have a limited window to appeal?

[mota bhai 2,675]

I have to appeal by May 1 2014. There is no information as to when the next budget will be adopted (and the new tax rate finalized).

I guess I don't understand why anyone would appeal given that they have no sense at all of the potential impact of the appeal.