How To Appeal Property Taxes

Every year, people with their own property, pay property taxes. Their taxes are charged, gathered and spent by the local government to finance the needs of their residents. But there are instances that you might get unreasonable property taxes, which are higher than usual. In that case, you need to file an appeal to correct it. The over estimation of taxes can cause a home owner to fall behind on payments for other debts or debt collectors, like National Credit Collections Agency. When you are going to appeal your taxes, you need to know that you are appealing your property’s assessed value, not your tax bill. The following are the things you need to know when appealing your property taxes.

As an aside, it should be noted that while your intention may be to appeal your property taxes, to lower them, there is the possibility that your taxes may have been underestimated; and as such, you may run the risk of paying more. Thus, if you have additional debts by groups like Nco Financial Group, you may have consider the possibility of handing more debt.

Who can file an appeal?

• Only the people who pays their taxes or the people who has an entity in which their address and name are shown on the assessment. A property owner can also file for an appeal on their own, or via a professionally authorized agent.

Why do you need to file an appeal?

• The value of your assessor market value, is greater than the normal market value.
• The assessed cost of your property is at a greater percentage than the usual county or township median level, that is shown in the sales or assessment ratio study. Your major assessment of your property is created on inaccurate information or details, such as the incorrect dimension of your building or lot. Your assessment is much higher than your neighbor’s property that is similar to your own.

What evidence is needed, when you file an appeal?

• Appraisal of your property
• Copy of your record property file and a photograph(s) of the same properties in your neighborhood. Include also the evidence of sale prices.
• Copy of Real Estate Transfer Declaration, contract or deed of purchase of your property.
• Copy of your property record and a photograph of your property, that is under your appeal.

How to file an appeal?

• You need to know, first, the deadline of filing – you need to get a letter that notifies your home’s taxes every year. The date of deadline for you to appeal is usually scheduled after the month that you received the letter. So, please refrain from procrastination in getting your appeal.
• Go to your county’s website to get your property’s assessment – every county has a different processes in appealing property tax, so it is better for you to know the instructions and forms needed in filing your appeal. You can also use your county’s website to save time to amassed all the information that is required. It is also helpful for you to have the recent tax property bill that you have received, so that you can put your property’s parcel number, if it is needed.
• Search for some mistakes in the description of your property – the website of your county should have the list of the details that are used to asses your property. You need to check all the details or information, such as the number of your bathrooms and bedrooms, garage, property category, total size of your land and many more. Even a very small mistake, like the incorrect size of your room, can help you in lowering the tax assessment, so you better make sure that all of the details in your county website are correct.
• Know the market cost, so you can make your appeal stronger, in case your property is overvalued. But you should make sure that the property that you have selected is structurally similar to your home, when it comes to the number of rooms, baths, square footage and many more. If you have difficulty in assessing this, you can also look for an appraiser (or real estate agent) for you to easily compare your property to others.
• You should also cite major repairs that are needed to be done in your home – you should look at (or take photos of) the things that are needed to be fixed in your house. You can also use repair estimates (via a repair site, like HomeWyse.com or HomeAdvisor.com), and subtract it from the market value of your property.
• Fill out your appeal form and send the evidence that you have gathered – after getting together all of the necessary evidence or details, you should now file your own appeal. Most counties prefer that the appeal be in written form, but some can be done online. After filing your appeal, you just need to wait for a decision from the people authorized to preside over the matter.

Again, make it a point to remove the possibility of inadvertently ending up paying more property tax than you had intended to pay, as it will further burden your finances, making it difficult to service debts; thus, lead to dealing with debt collectors, like Hunter Collection Agency. Overall, take special care to cross your T’s and dot your I’s, because, as tedious as the process may seem, you may very well find, that going through these steps will spare you thousands of dollars in unnecessary fees.