Re-assessment value appealed by school district

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Burgher

I filed an appeal on mine, based largely on photos of the condition of the rental property next door.

They sent out a crew to cut the grass and cited the owner for a bunch of violations.
Cut my assessment by a whopping $400!

The fix is in on these things.

Totally unrelated. The hearing officer has no authority to do that.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Bong477

In my experience they take the higher of the two... my house was assessed at around 80k more than I had just paid for it. My appraisal was a little higher than my sales price and the assessment was adjusted to the appraisal.

Anyway, I think this appeal is going to be a fail unless you have some evidence your house has dropped significantly in value since purchase or you were swindled into overpaying for it.

The only way the assessed value was as same as the appraised value was if you showed it to the hearing officer. You should have shown your sales agreement.

[FranklinPark404]

Originally Posted by Retiredcoach

There are a ton of inequities in the Allegheny County Assessment process beyond this this. How about the expensive house that sells for x number of dollars, but is only reassessed for a fraction of the sales price? Or, for the buyer who just purchases a "cookie cutter" house and who almost immediately gets a matching assessment, but his neighbors living in similar/better properties are left unscathed. How about the whole appeal process, whereas the appellant cannot used the current assessment value of another similar property, only sale prices to value his property on a tier that the county has already established?

This whole process of assessing properties is entrenched with inequity and oversight. It will not be too long before there is another class action suit for one of those afflicted by these visible and pronounced inequities in Allegheny County, where the county will, once again, be called to task.

+100000000!!

Nail meet head! I'm going this nightmare currently. I moved in 1.5 yrs ago (NA School dist). Immediately got challenged by them. I'm now assessed at my purchase price despite living among BIGGER NEWER NICER homes that are assessed much lower than mine! I can't describe how infuriating that can be, and I'm shocked no one has yet taken the task of initiating some sort of class action lawsuit. It's a totally rigged game they have against us and we don't know the rules. I feel it's only a matter of time a group of frustrated residents looks for legal recourse. As a result of my assessment, my monthly property tax bill is now equal to my mortgage!!!

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by FranklinPark404

+100000000!!

Nail meet head! I'm going this nightmare currently. I moved in 1.5 yrs ago (NA School dist). Immediately got challenged by them. I'm now assessed at my purchase price despite living among BIGGER NEWER NICER homes that are assessed much lower than mine! I can't describe how infuriating that can be, and I'm shocked no one has yet taken the task of initiating some sort of class action lawsuit. It's a totally rigged game they have against us and we don't know the rules. I feel it's only a matter of time a group of frustrated residents looks for legal recourse. As a result of my assessment, my monthly property tax bill is now equal to my mortgage!!!

I understand the inequity and how that could be frustrating. But it's beyond me how anybody can buy a home and not at least plan for the possibility of it being assessed at the purchase price.