Property Taxes over assessed (Indianapolis, Anderson: comparable sales, for sale, real estate)

[rastie]

Hi everyone. Have any of you dealt with a grossly over assessed property in Indy? I am starting to get majorly fed up. I filed an appeal nearly 3 years ago and they still haven't gotten back to me yet. I called them last week to make sure everything is still ok. Was basically told I am still on the "list".

I bought the house for less then 15k, I am currently assessed at over 85k. Almost 30k more then any house on my street which I easily check on the tax map.

My house has no garage and has less bedrooms/baths then both the properties next to me. I had a appraisal done when I filed the paperwork and my house came in around 45k.



Has anyone dealt with this before? Any way to get it sped up? I am starting to feel like I will have moved before this friggin house get re assessed. ARGHHHH

[Coogles]

My wife an I are in the same boat. We bought our house for $190k and it's assessed for over $260k. We filed our appeal close to two years ago, including a number of nearby comparable sales from around the neighborhood and have heard nothing. I was given the same line as you when I inquired about the status of my appeal.

It's no surprise; why would the county be in a harry to refund our property taxes? It's still frustrating, though.

[WILWRadio]

I'm glad someone brought up this subject. I've been viewing the property history of many homes in the Indy region to get an idea of what the property tax bills are like and I've noted a great disparity from year to year over a period of two to four years in many areas. Valuations changed dramatically over a short period of time and I am wondering what kind of methodology is used to determine the value of a home for levying a property tax in central Indiana. Some examples. I don't plan on buying any of these but I am simply linking to them as a means to illustrate my point. Click on Property History to see the property tax bills over a several year period:

3119 Ruckle St Indianapolis IN - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #21171706 - Realtor.com®

1676 Hannibal St Noblesville IN - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #77071492 - Realtor.com®

827 Country Ln Anderson IN - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #21155944 - Realtor.com®

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

I'm glad someone brought up this subject. I've been viewing the property history of many homes in the Indy region to get an idea of what the property tax bills are like and I've noted a great disparity from year to year over a period of two to four years in many areas. Valuations changed dramatically over a short period of time and I am wondering what kind of methodology is used to determine the value of a home for levying a property tax in central Indiana. Some examples. I don't plan on buying any of these but I am simply linking to them as a means to illustrate my point. Click on Property History to see the property tax bills over a several year period:

3119 Ruckle St Indianapolis IN - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #21171706 - Realtor.com®

1676 Hannibal St Noblesville IN - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #77071492 - Realtor.com®

827 Country Ln Anderson IN - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #21155944 - Realtor.com®

Without looking at your links, I can see right away that your examples cover 3 different counties. It's well known that Marion County has over-assessed properties and is way behind dealing with appeals. I can't speak for Madison County. A lot of folks on this board will talk trash about Hamilton County, but the tax situation here is much more organized and stable.

[Southside Shrek]

grmasterb is right on. Marion County is about 3 to 4 years behind dealing with appeals and there is not much one can do about it.

[sweetana3]

Plus there are a lot of errors. Friends have their exemptions input by Marion County on the wrong lines of the forms causing a huge increase in taxes. Now they have to file to have them corrected.

[Southside Shrek]

I had one Township Assessor back in late 2007 tell me when I appealed an assessment: "Everybody's taxes went up. My taxes went up on my farm and commercial property." His attitude was one of shared pain but I did not want to share in his pain. I am glad that he was not the one who decided my appeal.

[rastie]

Yea this is so frustrating to me right now. The state will tax sale your property if you don't pay your taxes on time but damn if it isn't ok for them to mess around for half a decade. I mean a couple grand or even 10 grand no biggy. But being over assessed almost double of what I should be paying is driving me nuts.

I was hoping to have this all settled by now and have this place on the market. I think that it will probably be sold before I even hear back from them. They told me 2 years and now I'm thinking it'll be 3+.

The worst part is that I have almost paid more in taxes then what I paid for the whole house.

Lesson learned I suppose. Next house I will be extra sure to make sure its been assessed more with todays housing market and not circa 2000.

[indy_317]

Nothing is free folks. If you want to see action, get a lawyer. Do a cost benefit analysis before you hire an attorney. I have no idea how much it would take, but find out that your not going to end up paying more to save more. Hancock County is also playing games with assessments. Over the years, my home was assessed at $121K with $500 in "other residential property and farmland." Now the $500 is odd enough. So after the change, they also assess "all other property, including personal property."

So after years of not lowing assessments in a down market, they finally lower my home value by $5000. They then zero out the $500. However, they magically come to the conclusion that the value of all my other property is $5,500. Wow, imagine that, it still works out to the same overall assessment as last year and the years before. But here is the kicker, only the home value has the 1% cap, there is a 3% cap on the personal property assessment. So this is nothing more than a backdoor tax hike, but made to look like "we are doing our jobs in lowering home values."

I'm done supporting anything anymore. The government is taking more and more of our money, so everything from school fundraisers to fire department fundraisers shouldn't even be needed. But of course it is never enough. I plan on making copies of my tax bill and sending it out when I get a letter begging to pay even more for local entities like the schools or fire department. I wouldn't be so upset if they didn't play these games with people. Our assessor must be clairvoyant to know our personal property is valued at $5,500. Then again, maybe they think we drive junk cars? Oh, and I can't believe the assessment is the exact same as before. With those odds, I should have won Mega Millions.

Folks, this is a serious problem. Your vehicles are personal property, and most two parent working families likely have two vehicles at least worth $5,000 each, if not more. Now maybe if you owe on the vehicles, that would reduce that amount. However, how many wives are wearing a $5,000 wedding ring and their husbands own two $1,000 hunting rifles? Don't forget the two $300 iPhones, and $2,000 in HDTVs. That right there would be $9,300 in personal property that would be taxed at 3%.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

How is your personal property taxed in Indiana?