Need Advice on Property Tax Increase (Knoxville: appraise, work, house)

[goodbyehollywood]

Hello Everyone -

I'm hoping someone can help me. I recently received a notice of appraisal from the tax assessor's office, advising me that the value of my house had been re-assessed, which will translate into a 36% property tax increase. 36%! I moved back home to Knoxville to get away from stuff like that!

Has anybody else dealt with this? I spoke to a friend of a friend at the City County Building and was advised to keep my mouth shut and pay it or else I'll tick them off and they'll increase it even more. My neighbors haven't received an increase of more than $20 or so for the past eight years. And the seller I bought the house from had been paying pretty much the same taxes since she bought the house ten years ago. This just seems so outrageous. Quick, pinch me-- maybe I'm dreaming and still in L.A.

If anybody has any words of wisdom on how to go about contesting this without screwing myself or causing my neighbors to get bumped up, too, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Mytown]

Are they saying your home is worth more than it is? If so, you can contest it that your home is not worth as much as they are saying by having an appraisal done.

[goodbyehollywood]

Mytown, thanks for the response.

They're saying it's worth a little more than it is-- maybe $20K or so--especially in this market. I couldn't sell it for what I paid for it less than a year ago. But with this reassessment, I'll be paying more property tax than both my next door neighbors, whose homes are double the square footage of mine and worth 50% more.

Nobody else's house on my street was reassessed, so I'll be paying the highest tax on the street for the smallest, least valuable house. I hate to sound like a whiner, but I just don't see how this is equitable at all!

I don't want my neighbors' taxes raised-- I just don't want mine to be way out of whack with the rest of the neighborhood.

[Turkey Creek Tom]

Originally Posted by goodbyehollywood

Hello Everyone -

I'm hoping someone can help me. I recently received a notice of appraisal from the tax assessor's office, advising me that the value of my house had been re-assessed, which will translate into a 36% property tax increase. 36%! I moved back home to Knoxville to get away from stuff like that!

Has anybody else dealt with this? I spoke to a friend of a friend at the City County Building and was advised to keep my mouth shut and pay it or else I'll tick them off and they'll increase it even more. My neighbors haven't received an increase of more than $20 or so for the past eight years. And the seller I bought the house from had been paying pretty much the same taxes since she bought the house ten years ago. This just seems so outrageous. Quick, pinch me-- maybe I'm dreaming and still in L.A.

If anybody has any words of wisdom on how to go about contesting this without screwing myself or causing my neighbors to get bumped up, too, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Go to the county property assessors office and ask the reason. Ask to see comparable sales. If you are not satisfied with the results from the county assessors office. You can go before the county board of equalization and even if you are not satisfied with the county board you can appeal to the state board. The best way to prove the value of your property is to get three or four sales from the past year in your area and compare them with your appraisal. These records are avaiable to you in the assessor's office. They can even be done on the internet. Before you go -- look at your property have any additions been made. Many times a person will add a sunroom, concrete drive way, etc and forget.

[goodbyehollywood]

Thanks for the responses! I pulled the comps and appealed to the county board. They were really nice and appreciative that I'd taken the time-- reminds me all over again why I'm happy to have moved back to the South!

[TreeFarm]

Don't forget that an increased appraisal doesn't necessarily translate into higher taxes. Tennessee law does not allow reappraisals to automatically result in higher taxes, unlike just about everywhere else.

As I understand it, it works like this. The country is required to reappraise everyone at the same time. The tax rate is then adjusted up or down so that the new appraisals result in exactly the same average tax bill. The catch is the word average.

If your new appraisal goes up a higher percentage than the average, then your taxes will increase. Conversely, if your appraisal goes up less than the average, your taxes will go down. If it the same as the average, they will stay the same.

If the local authorities want to raise everyones' taxes, they have to vote openly to do it. They can't rely on inflation to back door us with a tax increase.

This is my understanding of how it works. If I've got it wrong, I'm sure someone will point it out.

[goodbyehollywood]

TreeFarm, you make a good point. I'll have to check into this. The Assessor's office told me that they routinely reassess all properties every four years and that Knox County is due for reassessment in 2009. But a handful of folks are reassessed "in between." They were very vague and refused to be pinned down about why these periodic reassessments occurred, although they hastened to assure me that it was not because I just purchased the property last year.

But they will take 25% of this new appraisal as the new assessed value to calculate my 2007 taxes, and the increase will be retroactive. So even though the new assessed value will be decided upon in July, I'll be paying the increase from January 1. All while my neighbors have been paying the same tax (less than mine) since 2000 on a house worth 50% more than mine. Fair? Well, no. The way things are? Seems that way.

They also told me if I wanted to avoid another big bump up, I might think about selling my house before 2009. I guess that's fair warning...