real estate tax question

Im handling a problem with my mother in laws real estate tax. She lost her senior citizen discount which ive been told is a error. Thats one issue im working on but the other problem is her home assessed value has risen sharply. Mind you she has a very small house that is in need of a lot of renovations.
ive been told that her property tax has went up because of the values of other neighboring homes have went way up in value.
What is happening is younger people buy these homes and either do huge remodeling jobs or put new larger more expensive homes on their properties
So my mother in law, whose own father built this four room modest house in 1950 and now almost 70 years later because the neighborhood homes are bigger, mom has to bare the brunt of higher real estate tax and her house has not seen any increase in value relative to the other more expensive homes
So what im saying is you build a modest simple home and decades later you still have the same modest home but with all these Mc mansions are now around you and you have to pay inflated taxes because of theses high money homes.
She is closing in on 94, she gets by on a small income and my son and I do most of the repairs and all the upkeep. Her income is so low she qualified for the senior discount but now lost that for God knows why.
She wants to stay in her own home until the Lord calls her home and I intend to do everything possible to keep her in her own home
My question is does it work this way were you live?

check with your city hall it is possible that she has to reapply. Which makes no sense because she doesn’t get younger lol but not much at city hall makes sense, Possibly some type of clerical error also. Definitely needs some investigating done! You should be able to appeal the assessed value the house is worth what it is, just because you’re neighbor has a 5000 sq ft castle doesn’t necessarily mean your house is worth more. I’m no expert obviously but seems these issues should be reversed in your favor with a little work done on your part.

Not in CA. Thanks to proposition 13 passed in the 70s for just this reason. Our homes are assessed at 1% of the value of the home at the time of purchase. As an example my taxes have actually gone down because of the expiration of a special assessment bond but the house has increased by over 350% since purchase. They will never go up, even with further increase in value. There are newer construction areas where the taxes reach an additional 1% special assessment but they will never increase. They passed this law back then as I understand it because people were being taxed out of their homes due to dramatic increases in values.

it hasn't happened here YET
they just did a big story on CBS news in N.Y. on this
do a search and you should find the story
maybe a week ago

I hate to tell you that you are basically screwed..
N.Y. has started using algorithm to determine appraisals
and many people are very pissed off because
many people got increases in the same shoes as you

the reply from them was
the people who have been paying too little over the years will be charged more to make up for it.
and people who payed too much will pay less.
many people are questioning the methods why they got increases and N.Y. will not disclose
what those methods really are.

so according to them
you have been getting away with paying too little for years

basically it comes down to this
your elected officials need more money
bend over!
maybe you can get a part time job delivering pizza to make up for it??

In my area...…. YES taxes are relative to neighboring property's

flypaper said:

it hasn't happened here YET
they just did a big story on CBS news in N.Y. on this
do a search and you should find the story
maybe a week ago

I hate to tell you that you are basically screwed..
N.Y. has started using algorithm to determine appraisals
and many people are very pissed off because
many people got increases in the same shoes as you

the reply from them was
the people who have been paying too little over the years will be charged more to make up for it.
and people who payed too much will pay less.
many people are questioning the methods why they got increases and N.Y. will not disclose
what those methods really are.

so according to them
you have been getting away with paying too little for years

basically it comes down to this
your elected officials need more money
bend over!
maybe you can get a part time job delivering pizza to make up for it??

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LOL I get the dig with the pizza remark. She pays her fair share and dont forget we pay city tax as well. I did call my local elected official and next week there is a meeting set up with NYC Finance to try and iron this out. The sinful part is its a old lady who just wants to live out her life in her own home and she will as I will make up the difference if needed

You can thank your local tax assessor....a easy excuse for them is to pass it on the renovated homes.....it is another form of corrupt taxation. Who this abuse hurts is the elderly that are not locked in and younger ones trying to buy a home......

This was rampant in Texas.....every year my assessment for value went up to the maximum allowable percentage which equated to 50k per year......eventually, this abuse caught up in some localities because people pumped and dumped their homes and homes sat....so they in turn decreased those assessed homes......

It is despicable how greedy our local governments are........but they can sure spend tons of money buying useless things for our community...just so they bump there rating.......to be in the top blah blah blah.......

steve from staten island said:

LOL I get the dig with the pizza remark. She pays her fair share and dont forget we pay city tax as well. I did call my local elected official and next week there is a meeting set up with NYC Finance to try and iron this out. The sinful part is its a old lady who just wants to live out her life in her own home and she will as I will make up the difference if needed

Click to expand...

What a shame. The path humanity is on is a slippery slope I fear... empathy has left the building.
Without a doubt the political moral compass is in need of adjustment, irresponsible leaders that have lost touch with reality. If you were to run a business the way our government is run, you wouldn't have it long.

This is the opposite of what happens when your neighbors neglect their property and your value goes down.

You should be able to petition the property appraiser.

FL also has a double homestead exemption on a primary residence that is owner occupied for over a certain time, plus an additional exemption for seniors.

There should also be a cap as to how much it can increase per year, so you don't get hit with a double amount in one year just for this very reason.

Deleted

68Moparmaniac said:

What a shame. The path humanity is on is a slippery slope I fear... empathy has left the building.
Without a doubt the political moral compass is in need of adjustment, irresponsible leaders that have lost touch with reality. If you were to run a business the way our government is run, you wouldn't have it long.

Click to expand...

I agree, but there is hope. Im being helped by a staff member in my councilwoman's office. There are still some people in office who will fight for the working class. I was told this issue should be resolved in my mother in laws favor.

steve from staten island said:

Dont concern yourself with me or who I vote for. Was I crying about this or attempting to gather information? By the way I read the replying posts, many are offering good advise, except you who as usual act out instead of shutting your mouth.
How old are you? Time to act your age and move on.

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Sorry to hear this Steve. This is despicable for sure. I fought and won property tax reassessments two times on my home. The first said that my $100K assessed home was valued now at $375K. The township got a new appraiser and he classified my property as “waterfront” property because there is a creek behind it. So he overvalued my property as if it was a shore home. I went to court to dispute it (the instructions to dispute new assessments were given along with the new assessment explanation). The judge asked me what my BASIS for disputing the assessment was. Not being able to afford the new tax amount is not a valid basis. I told him “location, location, location”. My neighbor on one side was assessed at $125K and the neighbor on the other side was only $75K. We reviewed features of the properties (number of rooms, no garages, number of bathrooms, etc.) and then that my assessment was not in line with the neighborhood assessed values. The judge cut the assessed value to $175K and my annual taxes remained the same. The assessor (a real assh%le) did it again to me at the next reassessment. He went from $175K to $475K. This time I hired a PhD property appraiser to fight it as it was no longer being heard by a judge (more fair) but instead a panel of appointed people (who had no experience in real estate appraisals). I also engaged three real estate agents and had each give me a written appraisal. I then did a “comp” search on my own. Then I made a spreadsheet of all the values determined by each of the different methods and averaged them out to $225K. When presenting my argument, the panel told me to STFU because I wasn’t a certified assessor or an expert in RE appraisals. Then they (being led by the assh%le appraiser who continued calling my property “waterfront”) asked my PhD to speak (turned out that they were buddies) and he got the panel to drop the assessed value by $100K to $375K. This made my taxes double. Then the last time they did a reassessment, the assh%le had retired so the township hired a professional appraisal firm and they assessed me at $275K. My taxes dropped by 25%. I am paying about $550 a month for RE taxes.

The largest portion of my RE tax is the local and regional school rates. The regional school has been going crazy spending money on building huge expansion buildings (which were only needed to handle a 10 year overload projection) and on a 140 acre sports complex (which is hardly used). They have 3 baseball fields (they only use 2), 3 lacrosse fields (they only use 1), and 6 soccer fields (they use 3). This would be fine if anyone in the community was allowed to use them when not in use by the school, but this is not allowed.

Good luck with your endeavor Steve.

Take your political nonsense somewhere else.
Steve asked a legitimate question.

We have the same situation in Ohio and we have republican representation.

steve from staten island said:

I agree, but there is hope. Im being helped by a staff member in my councilwoman's office. There are still some people in office who will fight for the working class. I was told this issue should be resolved in my mother in laws favor.

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this seems like a simple issue,she needs the house/property Re-evaluated for taxes.
you should definitely make Sure this gets done and dont wait for others to make it happen either,because

i actually was watching a news piece about Detroit doing the exact same thing to " new " homeowners there.
they would buy the ( poor to fair condition ) house for a couple of grand and then get Slammed with high taxes on the Former value of the property on a yearly basis.
then they would get thrown out of the houses,because of unpaid taxes.
not only is it unfair,but its criminal behaviour by our elected officials.

example,lady buys a rundown house for 5 grand,
then starts putting every penny she has into making it livable,
only to get Slammed with an outrageous tax bill.
ends up living month to month in fear of losing her home,
which she did,for the lump sum of around 30 grand in back taxes.
now,thats highway robbery.

and why would they Change it?
they are making money no matter which way they get you.
sell you the house,take your money
charge you an inflated tax base and take your money.
watch you lose your house,shake their heads,
and sell that house again and start the money sucking process again.

jaysus,what is this,recess in the sandbox time??
he did this so i did that....
cant you guys keep that bs in the political forum?
all i saw was steve asking a simple question.
i like both of you guys,but,this stuff gets old.
i get a mental image of you 2 rolling around on the ground at a car show screaming liberal!
democrat! and flailing away...lol!

and to vintage,i couldnt hit thanks like and agree,site would only let me hit one.
but,you get the idea.

Ironbuilt said:

Steve is getting a taste of his own medicine!!!
And I could care less what YOU think!!!

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Grow up!
You have proven yourself to be a fool several times over on the forum.
I blocked you as well when you sent me a message and told me you hoped my daughter ended up married to a nigg**.

another thread gone sideways...

Steve-
If the senior discount doesn't get reinstated, you can probably do a tax appeal like 68gtxman described. I have done a couple myself. It's a lot of work, but doable. Also, there are lawyers who specialize in this and work on a contingency. They usually get one year's tax savings if they get your taxes lowered. Depending on how much it is though, they might want to charge a flat fee if it's too little of a savings.

The way it works in NJ, your tax assessment has two parts, the land and the improvements (the house, building, etc). If you have older homes being bought up in your neighborhood and the houses knocked down and new Mcmansions being built, your increase in land value is real. People will pay a higher price if you want to sell and the assessment is based on market value. Now your home is a different story. They assess improvements based on size (square footage and type of space, unfinished basement less than a full kitchen), age (when it was built) and condition. Your mother in law's house is the small original house from way back when. It can only be valued on the few things I mentioned. The tax rate they charge per assessed dollar is a little different, where older original properties are taxed at a much lower rate than new construction. The bottom line is that if you have new homes being built in your area, taxes will go up because you can sell your older house for more, just for the land value. As an example, an old lady lived in a house across the street from me. It was on a half acre. Her taxes were about $12k/year. She moved in with her daughter and sold the house for $650k. The builder who bought it knocked the house down and put a 7000 sq ft Mcmansion up and sold it for $2.8 million. The taxes on it are about $50k/year. The funny thing is, only 2 people live in the house (their 2 kids are older and moved out). Now, I benefit from it. My property value has gone up ( it's great living in the cheapest house on the block). My house is half the size and although 15 years ago I gutted the house down to the foundation, keeping one original wall, and put an addition on the house, it is still assessed as being built in the 60's and charged a lower rate than brand new construction. So my taxes are "only" $19k a year now, about 40% of the Mcmansion that's twice the size. When the 08 crash came, i did a tax appeal and they lowered my assessment by about $100k because market values based on comparable properties sold (comps) dropped. When they built the Mcmansion 3 years ago, my assessment went up by $75k based on the increased land value. I'm not happy but know I will get more for my house when I decide to sell.

Probably why Florida is now NYC/NY state south

for once California did it right
Prop 13 is a great deal, especially compared to some states...

tax man always wins
sucks they take advantage of the elderly

Some places I've understand you can defer some all tax payments until house is sold.