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I'm in a complete panic! I just received a letter in the mail stating that my taxes were being raised from $12,500 to $15,600! How is this possible? We haven't done any renovations, remodeling, home improvements, nothing. This is only our second year in the house.
Is this even legal? Should I hire a lawyer? We will not be able to afford this house if the taxes truly are being raised this much.
Anyone out there, I appreciate your help and advice. I am at a loss for words, just sick about this.
I'm in a complete panic! I just received a letter in the mail stating that my taxes were being raised from $12,500 to $15,600! How is this possible? We haven't done any renovations, remodeling, home improvements, nothing. This is only our second year in the house.
Is this even legal? Should I hire a lawyer? We will not be able to afford this house if the taxes truly are being raised this much.
Anyone out there, I appreciate your help and advice. I am at a loss for words, just sick about this.
Much appreciated
It sounds likely that one of two things happened.
1. Your town recently did a town wide re evaluation, where an appraiser reviewed and re appraised all the properties in the town. This occurs typically every 10 or so years.es
2. You recently bought a home and were paying taxes based on an old appraisal of the homes value. Now that the home has sold, the town now has figured the new value of the home based on your recent purchase price of the home.
Either way, call your local town hall and ask what happened.
KoalaNJ
FWIW, In doing a quick google it seems that Oakland did have a town wide re assessment done in 2011, so definitely call town hall to ask for an explanation. It may be that the latter half of this year they will be collecting back taxes that were not collected for the previous 6 months, (based on the newly revised assessment in 2011) since tax statements only come out once a year.
Last edited by KoalaNJ; 08-13-2015 at 05:48 PM..
Reason: add additional info
1. Your town recently did a town wide re evaluation, where an appraiser reviewed and re appraised all the properties in the town. This occurs typically every 10 or so years.es
This is hard to miss. They send an appraiser out and send you about a billion notices. If it was done in 2011 they shouldn't be just doing the increases now.
Quote:
2. You recently bought a home and were paying taxes based on an old appraisal of the homes value. Now that the home has sold, the town now has figured the new value of the home based on your recent purchase price of the home.
Sales cannot trigger assessments in NJ:
"An assessor is not allowed to reassess property based only on its recent sale. That is "spot assessing." The Supreme Court decision, Township of West Milford v. Gerald and Juanita Van Decker, affirmed: "The practice of reassessing properties solely because those properties have been sold in the previous year is unconstitutional because it shifts the tax burden to new owners in the municipality."
Anyway, yeah, contact the town and have them let you know what happened to raise your taxes. It's possible it's a flat-out mistake (e.g. they did an added assessment due to renovation to another property, and got the parcel number wrong).
It's also possible they raised property tax rates by that much, alas.
It's horror stories like this that make me feel like I made the right call in never buying a home in the Tony Soprano State. I so can't wait to get out of the people's republic republic of NJ once I'm retired. It's creepy out there. 15K a year in property taxes is cruel. Lemme guess. I suspect we may hear from some of the NJ over the top property tax defenders come out and remind us that it's necessary, because NJ has great schools!
Last edited by izannimda; 08-13-2015 at 08:17 PM..
This is hard to miss. They send an appraiser out and send you about a billion notices. If it was done in 2011 they shouldn't be just doing the increases now.
Sales cannot trigger assessments in NJ:
"An assessor is not allowed to reassess property based only on its recent sale. That is "spot assessing." The Supreme Court decision, Township of West Milford v. Gerald and Juanita Van Decker, affirmed: "The practice of reassessing properties solely because those properties have been sold in the previous year is unconstitutional because it shifts the tax burden to new owners in the municipality."
Anyway, yeah, contact the town and have them let you know what happened to raise your taxes. It's possible it's a flat-out mistake (e.g. they did an added assessment due to renovation to another property, and got the parcel number wrong).
It's also possible they raised property tax rates by that much, alas.
Thank you Nybbler for updating me, as well as many others on this forum, as to the recent court ruling. I am glad to hear that the court ruled in the homeowners favor. Clearly I am not a CPA by profession.
Another thing I wondered about is whether or not the home the OP purchased was a new construction, so the initial tax bill may then have been estimated and based on the value of a parcel of un improved land for a portion of the year. I know that is what happened to me with the tax bill I received almost a year after moving into my newly constructed home, it was quite a jump up from the previous tax bill we received.
Thank you Nybbler for updating me, as well as many others on this forum, as to the recent court ruling. I am glad to hear that the court ruled in the homeowners favor. Clearly I am not a CPA by profession.
Another thing I wondered about is whether or not the home the OP purchased was a new construction, so the initial tax bill may then have been estimated and based on the value of a parcel of un improved land for a portion of the year. I know that is what happened to me with the tax bill I received almost a year after moving into my newly constructed home, it was quite a jump up from the previous tax bill we received.
KoalaNJ
I dated a girl who was a layer in a lawfirm that was in town specializing in suing that town over property tax disputes. That's their whole practice, represent residential and business residents over property tax disputes.
maybe OP can check her town, it might have a law firm that does just that
Of course their favorite client is business, the pay is better.
I'm in a complete panic! I just received a letter in the mail stating that my taxes were being raised from $12,500 to $15,600! How is this possible? We haven't done any renovations, remodeling, home improvements, nothing. This is only our second year in the house.
Is this even legal? Should I hire a lawyer? We will not be able to afford this house if the taxes truly are being raised this much.
Anyone out there, I appreciate your help and advice. I am at a loss for words, just sick about this.
Much appreciated
Yes, this is legal---unless the town/municipality did something illegal, and most likely they didn't.
Yes, hire an attorney for a property tax appeal. Find an expert. Most will take it on a contingency basis, aside from some costs/fees.
I'm in a complete panic! I just received a letter in the mail stating that my taxes were being raised from $12,500 to $15,600! How is this possible? We haven't done any renovations, remodeling, home improvements, nothing. This is only our second year in the house.
Is this even legal? Should I hire a lawyer? We will not be able to afford this house if the taxes truly are being raised this much.
Anyone out there, I appreciate your help and advice. I am at a loss for words, just sick about this.
Much appreciated
You should thank Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) for cutting state aid to local schools, the towns, townships and counties to the bone and compelling your school districts, towns, townships and counties to push up property taxes by raising assessments and tax rates!
I don't have anything useful to add except to say 1) Please continue to update us on what happened. 2) I hope things work out.
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