taxes (real estate, assessors, mortgage)

[meg0426]

Our good friend purchased a home a few years ago which had just been renovated. The word later was that the renovation job went on for years. In fact, one bathroom still needed to be tiled while they were negotiating and then in the process of purchasing the place. The house was listed by a well known real estate company. It was marketed as having "LOW TAXES!!!" which was printed as such in it's MLS. After moving into her new home, problems were discovered by family and friends, several of these problems needed to be corrected immediately due to potential safety issues. First on the list was the flue off the furnace being to small which could have been deadly. Another problem was a radiant heat system (the only heat source) which turned out to be inadequate in heating the house. Hot water lines needed to be tied into the central air handlers for forced hot air. One air handler is in a tight attic space against the rafters and was clearly closed in after it was installed. If there is ever a problem, it would be impossible to service the handler, and if it ever needed to be replaced - the ceiling would have to be ripped out. It took quite a bit of money to make the house safe to live in, where it was believed to be ready to move into. To top things off - sometime in that first year, assessors came to the house - those "LOW TAXES!!!" nearly doubled.

My questions are -

How can a house have major renovation work, end up with issues like this and yet pass final inspection to have a CO issued?

This women has gone through much of her savings to make corrections on the house, the tax increase made things worse, the mortgage payments went up, and now with the economic situation - the value of the house has dropped drastically. Selling the place now would be insane.

Does this women have a case against the real estate company who marketed this house as having low taxes, only to be doubled several months later? Or the Town for that matter, for what seems a bit shady in the case of inspection, time and issue of CO, and timing of assessment.

I would appreciate any advice on these issues...

Thanks

[7 Wishes]

One thing you can try is to petition your town/city for a reassessment that will hopefully lower your assessed value and thus your taxes. It can be an arduous process, but my mom was in a similar situation and won, and it was before the real estate meltdown (OK just a little before). Good luck!

[NJGirl12]

Unfortunately, very unlikely that she would have any viable claim against either the real estate company or the town. There's a possibility she might have a claim against the contractor that did shoddy work or against the seller if they actively sought to conceal the problems.

[quelinda]

I agree that it is the buyer's duty to look into the tax situation and not believe a statement by the real estate broker. The term "low taxes" is indeed relative and what is viewed as low by the broker may not be low to the payee. I would also look at a claim against the contractor or the seller, though I would think the buyer's inspector had a duty to notice these things and the buyer should have adequately inspected before buying the place.