Revaluation questions (floors, Lowes, AC, heat)

[ansky]

My town is having a revaluation starting this summer. I have a couple questions I wanted to have answered before they come knocking at my door. The brochure I got in the mail says they will be calculating the total "livable" square footage of the home.

1. My house has a finished basement (walls, ceiling, and carpeting), however there is no heat or AC source in the basement. Would this be considered "livable" space and count towards the square footage? I would think not since it is unusable in the winter since there is no direct heat source.

2. We have a 3/4 bath in the basement. Does that count towards the total number of bathrooms in the house? I remember reading somewhere that basement bathrooms don't really count towards the assessed value of a house.

3. We have a finished attic that has both a heat and AC source, but it is clearly attic space (it's above the two main floors of the house). Do finished attics count towards the "livable" square footage.

[K'ledgeBldr]

The only way to know for sure is to contact your county or municipality.
What can be construed from a marketing standpoint vs. RE taxes can be completely different.

[cdelena]

In my county it does not count as livable unless it is heated.

[TempesT68]

1. Below grade (ie basements) are not considered living space, however do add to the value of the home.
2. Bathrooms in the basement do count in the total in the home.
3. No, but also a perk that buyer's may like.

[DanBev]

They sent me a notice of revaluation and one question was would I let them in to check y or n.I said n.This form had all particulars from permit in 1981.Had to sign that it was correct.Who owns the house???
We have not moved in yet,foreclosure,we just got it back on its feet after $18000 and 5 weeks.
The former owners,drunks,never appealed high assessment so we got stuck with it.We are in CT.
My brother in-law has been in his home 50 years and has never had anyone in his home,appealed last revaluation and got it reduced $28000.

[windtimber]

Originally Posted by DanBev

They sent me a notice of revaluation and one question was would I let them in to check y or n.I said n.This form had all particulars from permit in 1981.Had to sign that it was correct.Who owns the house???
We have not moved in yet,foreclosure,we just got it back on its feet after $18000 and 5 weeks.
The former owners,drunks,never appealed high assessment so we got stuck with it.We are in CT.
My brother in-law has been in his home 50 years and has never had anyone in his home,appealed last revaluation and got it reduced $28000.

OK...everybody gasp and excoriate me...among other things I provide legal advice to county tax assessors!

Now that that's out of the way, consider this.

We recently went through a broad tax district residential re-evaluation. Three notable things occurred. Something like 15% of the homes were vastly under-valued for tax purposes due to substantial renovations, additions, and improvements. Those folks were not paying their fair share. About 50% of the properties were evaluated spot-on correct. About 35% were substantially overvalued and ended up with assessment reductions and corresponding tax reductions.

So think twice about saying "No, you're not getting into my house to take a look." My government clients figure that an assessor had not been inside many of the overvalued homes for years. Consequently, general market adjustments and inflationary cost adjustments had been taken...and those may, or may not, have a true relationship to actual condition and value.

So it's no so bad to have an assessor look the place over.

And it's the right thing to do to be treated like your neighbor and pay your fair share of the total property tax bill.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by windtimber

OK...everybody gasp and excoriate me...among other things I provide legal advice to county tax assessors!

Now that that's out of the way, consider this.

We recently went through a broad tax district residential re-evaluation. Three notable things occurred. Something like 15% of the homes were vastly under-valued for tax purposes due to substantial renovations, additions, and improvements. Those folks were not paying their fair share. About 50% of the properties were evaluated spot-on correct. About 35% were substantially overvalued and ended up with assessment reductions and corresponding tax reductions.

So think twice about saying "No, you're not getting into my house to take a look." My government clients figure that an assessor had not been inside many of the overvalued homes for years. Consequently, general market adjustments and inflationary cost adjustments had been taken...and those may, or may not, have a true relationship to actual condition and value.

So it's no so bad to have an assessor look the place over.

And it's the right thing to do to be treated like your neighbor and pay your fair share of the total property tax bill.

So if I know I have an improvement that would raise my taxes, taxes I do not believe in paying, I should let these fat cat bureaucratic, crooked corrupt, lying, conniving idiots into my house to rape me of my hard earned money just so they can vote themselves another raise with their new windfall?

Ok. That's like saying I would rather have the Dentist perform 9 root canals on me rather then winning the lottery tonight.

No thanks. MY HOUSE. GET THE HELL OUT. The only thing more dangerous then your govt are those who like and trust them. They only want in your house so they can watch what you are doing and charge you for it if they don't like it.

[DanBev]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

So if I know I have an improvement that would raise my taxes, taxes I do not believe in paying, I should let these fat cat bureaucratic, crooked corrupt, lying, conniving idiots into my house to rape me of my hard earned money just so they can vote themselves another raise with their new windfall?

Ok. That's like saying I would rather have the Dentist perform 9 root canals on me rather then winning the lottery tonight.

No thanks. MY HOUSE. GET THE HELL OUT. The only thing more dangerous then your govt are those who like and trust them. They only want in your house so they can watch what you are doing and charge you for it if they don't like it.

You are one hundred percent correct.The home I am talking about is a foreclosure we bought and just finished.An alcholic owned it and lost it,the appraised value was $173,000 on 24 by 30 with 2 br up.
We thought appeal would be successful since in 2005 changed hands for $109,000 and then in 2006 for $125,000,the buzzards of gov't denied said no comparables.We took a dilapadated home with collapsed garage and porches only to be hit by crooked gov't.The people around home are happy,homes in area never were valued at this price.As Stated You Do Not Own Home.

[Uconn97]

Just be careful how you proceed. Last year I was all set to appeal my tax bill, but a nagging voice told me to do some homework. so I pulled up all the assesments on my street and lo and behold we actually had the lowest tax bill out of 12 homes. Not sure why since ours isn't the smallest and its on a larger lot than 9 of the other houses, but there it was. We also know since we have been in most of the homes that we have done the most improvements over the last 8 years, but sorry, i haven't and have no intention of letting any revaluation company into my house to snoop around. The square footage hasn't changed, just the finishes. I did manage to help a neighbor out in the process. Noted that her lot was listed as much larger than it could possibly be and asked her about it. She had no clue that it had been recorded as almost .25 acres larger than it actually is. She promptly appealed the tax and the data and had it fixed to the correct size and tax amount.

[DanBev]

I have looked around and most in my area,hardly want to say it,Rockville are lower than mine at $3700 in 24 by 30 cape.