Ten Year tax abatement (Philadelphia: houses, buying, contractors)

[Lucillle]

How does it work, can one take the abatement if the developer did the work, when does one file, where does one file for the ten year abatement of property tax? Apparently many people are taking advantage of this, and it sounds appealling.

[solibs]

You apply for the abatement at the Municipal Services Bldg. when you're pulling permits. It doesn't matter who did the work or who owns the house. If the permits were pulled in 2005 then there are 5 years left on the abatement.

[Lucillle]

So if I look at a house where improvements were done but the person doing the improvements did not timely apply for an abatement, it looks like the chance for an abatement was lost?

[solibs]

Originally Posted by Lucillle

So if I look at a house where improvements were done but the person doing the improvements did not timely apply for an abatement, it looks like the chance for an abatement was lost?

exactemente!

Although, this is Philadelphia, I'm sure you could retroactively apply if you grease the right levers but then you'd still probably have to start from when the work was done. So if it was done 7 years ago you'd have 3 years left.

Also, in my experience with rowhouses - which involves rehabbing quite a few of them - If you're looking for a row for under $400k that has been rehabbed you're better off just buying something cheap and doing the work yourself. Well, not yourself, but hiring people to do it.

There are always mistakes, cover-ups and things that contractors don't notice b/c they're not living in the house. It's painful to pay a lot of money for something only to have tear down someone else's work and spend more money to have it done correctly or, at least to your standards.