View Full Version : County's Property Value Assessment - How to win a dispute?
I just received my county property value assessment and they raised the value 50K over last year and want an additional $600 in taxes this year.
I have until 1 June to dispute it.
I purchased the property in November 2013 and the VA Assessment came in well over what I paid for it.
The county now says it's worth 75K more than the assessment.
Has anyone filed a dispute with the county?
I have never done this and just wanted to try to get some info on how it's done successfully.
I do not plan on selling the property, so I'd like to save some money on taxes and have the County's value lowered.
I'm also researching other options to lower the taxes through Ag exemptions and such.
You are not alone. My house in Centennial (Arapahoe County) went up 45%. A friend also in Arapahoe had his property go up almost 60%!
Everyone's is going up even if you live in the slum.... "They" are trollin' for more tax money, they never have enough.
Mine went up by about 30% also (if I remember the notice correctly).
I'm interested too. Im expecting to have to fight aurora on this.
Weld county went up 5%
cmailliard
05-06-2015, 12:17
Mine went up $70,000 ($290,000 - $360,000) in Adams County. There was a story on the news about this the other day.
Mine went up, but to an amount that was slightly less than it appraised for.
What's the benefit of having a higher county placed value? Resale prices don't seem to care about that.
What's the benefit of having a higher county placed value? Resale prices don't seem to care about that.
So they can tax you more? The benefit goes to the county, not the homeowner.. It's a tax hike they can get away with because most people get huffy about it but in the end just go with the flow.
I rent so I've never had to fight something like this.
So they can tax you more? The benefit goes to the county, not the homeowner.. It's a tax hike they can get away with because most people get huffy about it but in the end just go with the flow.
I rent so I've never had to fight something like this.
That's my understanding too. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something.
thvigil11
05-06-2015, 12:34
I used to work for a New Mexico Assessor's office. I believe the laws in CO are similar, but here we go.
In NM
Within the accepted period, you can file a protest. The county will have a period in order to informally arbitrate this protest, during this time, it would be one on one conversations with an county official, negotiating an agreement. If an agreement cannot be made within a period of time, the protest will move on to a formal hearing. In NM the board is made up of a member of NM State Tax and Revenue and several local appointed members (usually they are people connected with the real estate industry) at the formal hearing, both sides will present their info and a decision will be reached by the board. As far as I know, CO is very similar to this.
That being said. There are several ways to approach this when Residential property is concerned. There are two main way to value residental property. Replacement value (including appropriate depreciation) also known as Cost Approach and Market value also known as Sales Approach. Most current appraisal theory states that the sales approach is the most accurate way. Basically, comparable sales (like properties ie same number of bed, bath, style, location, etc) will show what a target property should be worth. The cost approach is better used when there are few comparable sales in order to make a value judgement.
When sale prices are running high, realtors and tax folks love the sales method, while homeowner love the cost approach. When prices are low, its the opposite. The issue with property tax, is that a variety of state laws jump in that interfer with valueing the house at appropriate levels. New Mexico has a great one, search "New Mexico Tax Lightning" for more info. As far as handling a protest, from the property owner standpoint. Understand that your home value is based on an average of what many similar homes to yours are selling for, not what you paid for your particular home. Many times though, the comparable sales have been cherry picked by the assessor, realtor or even property owner. The more comparable sales you can bring to the protest, the more firepower you will have to dispute your value. (assuming that the comparable sales say that your home is overvalued) But if you happened to get a great deal on your home, you might be out of luck, if the comparable sales say that you should have paid more. Searching MLS and even contacting a local realtor are good ways to get comparable sales figures. As for the cost approach, you should know that the replacement cost will be figured again based on average cost to replace something, not what you might be able do it for.
Davsel is correct in looking into the variety of exemptions that are available as well. Many of these are underpublished.
crashdown
05-06-2015, 12:42
Mine went up, but still WAY under the appraisal I just had done, and WAY over what I bought it for.... so I guess I can't be too pissed.
It's usually not too bad, find some close properties use their assessments as well as comps and usually they will back down quite a bit.
Last time around they upped our house by 100K and after using Zillow and the assessor page to back up my argument I got them to split the difference which was actually fair.
Our previous house in Douglas County was a nightmare, they upped the value by about 25% making our house by far the highest valued in the neighborhood even though it was firmly in the middle. I went the normal route of disputing the assessment but they refused to budge and we ended up having to go to arbitration. For that hearing I had my realtor pull comps and do a market analysis, just like we would have if we were trying to sell, and combined that with info for other houses from the assessor site.
It was pretty funny, the assessor called and made one offer which we refused, and then stopped us in the hallway before our hearing and made another offer. We had so much data we weren't budging. When we met with the arbitrator he basically asked the assessor why he was wasting everyone's time and agreed with our number.
thvigil11
05-06-2015, 12:53
I forgot to add that most counties these days are using mass appraisal methods. So instead of looking at you particular home, finding comparable sales, and then assigning a value, now they are doing bulk appraisal that is based on some pretty fancy algorithms, computers and SWAG. These mass appraisal systems will look at total sales in a given grouping (usually this is done by region, here they use school zones) Those sales will be intricately broken down by the computer by available characteristics and the output will guess what the total value for the entire group should go up or down (usually up). The problem here is sometimes your sales are all apples, but the mass appraisal system guesses at oranges. For example the majority of the sales may be 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car ranch homes. The system sees that these homes are selling at an increase of 20%. The system is able to break down these sales figures into its core components and its used to assign a value change to other homes that might not be selling. IE, (4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car ranch homes go up 20%) so the computer's algorithms say that all the (2 bed, 1 baths, 1 cars in the area should increase by 15%), (3 bed, 2 baths, 1 cars in the area should increase by 17%), (3 bed, 2 baths, 2 cars in the area should increase by 19%) even though not a single one of these properties has sold.
Fun huh? So the best way to fight these Mass Appraisal value increases is to protest the property valuation. By doing this, the assessors office now has to either defend its mass appraisal system, (which few of the employees fully understand) or justify your particular value using comparable sales. Again, bringing in your own comparable sales will help you (as long as the sales support the home owners opinion of value). Bring them all in though, the home owner cherry picking sales is not a good idea. For starters, the assessors office probably has access to the sales you didn't pick. Second, if you go to the formal hearing, cherry picking makes the homeowner look like an ass.
And if the new assessed values are under what homes are selling for around the home, you're stuck? I guess it's a good problem to have but my taxes were already $2200 for a 200k home. :(
Guess I should feel lucky, my assessed value only increased 25%
Here is some info from Douglas County: http://www.douglas.co.us/assessor/2015-reappraisal/. Check with your respective county of residence, as the rules should be the same, and the process similar.
mtnrider
05-06-2015, 16:20
Mine went up as well. About $110,000. Another nail in the coffin for leaving here
Roger Ronas
05-06-2015, 16:46
I successfully protested my assessment a few years ago.
I had put a new roof on and because of the permit, they raised value by about 10%.
I disputed and provided compatible home values and recent sales to show that they were crazy.
I also commented that a new roof was not an increase in valuation, I was bringing the home up to past condition.
Here is the county website to search your property and find compatibles.
http://land.elpasoco.com/
HTH
Roger
sportbikeco
05-06-2015, 17:55
Is their assessment right or wrong on value? Is it close to what comps are selling for?
We successfully disputed the tax valuation on a property in Summit County a few years back. Went to a hearing in front of the county board. The Assessor had his ducks in a row. The board gave us a a "token" adjustment (30K) on value. We did present some evidence that the comps weren't necessarily comparable. After it was all over, the assessor pulled us aside and explained that with the TABOR laws in Colorado, it didn't really matter. He said if the county increased the valuations to the point they would collect excess of TABOR allowances, they would have to drop the mil levy rates so they didn't collect too much tax.
We successfully disputed the tax valuation on a property in Summit County a few years back. Went to a hearing in front of the county board. The Assessor had his ducks in a row. The board gave us a a "token" adjustment (30K) on value. We did present some evidence that the comps weren't necessarily comparable. After it was all over, the assessor pulled us aside and explained that with the TABOR laws in Colorado, it didn't really matter. He said if the county increased the valuations to the point they would collect excess of TABOR allowances, they would have to drop the mil levy rates so they didn't collect too much tax.
Glad you got a drop.
The assessor's story, I call bs. The assessor was trying to discourage word-of-mouth spread of info that valuations could be lowered.
Just my opinion though.
Jeffrey Lebowski
05-06-2015, 18:21
Mine went up as well. About $110,000.
Put me down for about the same. I was astonished.
Jeffrey Lebowski
05-06-2015, 18:24
It's a tax hike they can get away with because most people get huffy about it but in the end just go with the flow.
I rent so I've never had to fight something like this.
It is a lot more an extremely uphill battle to fight vs. go with the flow. You'll likely spend more fighting it than the tax and the burden of proof is obviously all on you. Or so reads the documentation and so says a friend of mine who does tax assessment for the city.
Luckily, they don't look inside. While your assessment may go up, it'd go up even more if they came in and saw your remodeled bathroom, finished basement, that sort of thing, etc.
jerrymrc
05-06-2015, 18:31
I successfully protested my assessment a few years ago.
I had put a new roof on and because of the permit, they raised value by about 10%.
I disputed and provided compatible home values and recent sales to show that they were crazy.
I also commented that a new roof was not an increase in valuation, I was bringing the home up to past condition.
Here is the county website to search your property and find compatibles.
http://land.elpasoco.com/
HTH
Roger
I did mine a few years ago and won. I did not do anything crazy but it paid off since the other homes in the hood are valued at more so when the downturn happened 08-09 I was ahead of the game. The only raised mine 8% but I need to look at the comps in my area.
I will add that my notice put me at about +53%.
I understand that the market is up, but Arapahoe County evals are based on a 6/30/2014 sale date, using data as far back as 7/1/2012.
What does next year hold in store, with current market conditions.
blacklabel
05-06-2015, 19:08
Mine went up about 20%. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing at this point.
I don't believe my house has gained 1/3 of it's previous value. And that's based on June 2012 to June 2014, can't wait till 2015, probably double again. And look, I live in Aurora.
We should be thankful. With the extra money the earned, I'm sure they will do their best to get maximum value out of every dollar. The roads are going to be smoother, the schools smarter, and the streets safer. I for one wish I could give more.
We should be thankful. With the extra money the earned, I'm sure they will do their best to get maximum value out of every dollar. The roads are going to be smoother, the schools smarter, and the streets safer. I for one wish I could give more.
Be careful what you wish for!
We should be thankful. With the extra money the earned, I'm sure they will do their best to get maximum value out of every dollar. The roads are going to be smoother, the schools smarter, and the streets safer. I for one wish I could give more.
Because our overlords representatives have been so diligent in making sure our taxes are spent effectively in the past...
You are not alone. My house in Centennial (Arapahoe County) went up 45%. A friend also in Arapahoe had his property go up almost 60%!
Hahahaha holy crap. Yeah I'd fight that with every spare moment I had.
I'll be disputing mine. They even sent same size and model homes comparisons but are somehow $50K over what those same homes sold for...
Thanks for all the info.
I thought my increase was bad. Glad I don't live up north - sounds like you guys are really getting taken.
I was able to file a protest online - link is on the NOV I received.
Of course, the Teller County website that has a tool for showing comperable qualified sales does not work, but I was able to use Zillow.
I found houses that have recently sold, and Zillow has a link on each property to the Assessor's site that provides the legal info needed to complete the online appeal.
They want to know what I believe it is worth, the reason why, and the legal info on three comparable sales. Fairly painless actually.
I received a confirmation email, and now I wait.
Thanks again
Just got a call from the Assessor's office confirming they received my online appeal.
He went over their information on my property to see if it was still correct.
He said he understood my concern and that they would be working the appeals in June.
newracer
05-08-2015, 10:43
Just received mine in the mail, it increased about 14%. I am OK with that as houses around me are selling for a lot. Next year might be a huge increase.
So I got mine for my place in Arapahoe county. It was $2300 lower than the appraisal last year. I cant really fight that
kidicarus13
05-16-2015, 21:19
So I got mine for my place in Arapahoe county. It was $2300 lower than the appraisal last year. I cant really fight that
The neighborhood is going to $hit or the county knows something you don't?
Well got my Teller County dispute back. On a $160k property they wanted to raise my assessed value by $48k. I fougot it and got an increase of $9k, plus the added bonus they lowered the rate of assessment from 7.96% to 7.2%. I beleven that is state wide.
I have to go to a hearing and have a full property inspection on my weld county property. Submitting my second dispute shortly
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