Property Tax BS!

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

Johnny or Bill, any idea whats up with Mansfield this year? My quarterly bill was up a lot.

I am appealing

[TheSpecialist]

BTW my town taxes all property at the same rate, commercial residential etc. That is the biggest bs of all of it. Also my town has consistently raised the taxes each year the max they can without a 2 1/2 . They have also cut jobs, closed a fire station, cut alot of the parks and rec , oh yeah and the assessor told us the taxes will be going up again.

[UserRemoved1]

Well I'm telling you in Uxbridge it definitely is. And I checked with my real estate agent back then too and she said it was common practice. I specifically asked the assessor when he came out to remeasure the house. They will revalue the house based on the last selling price and they use the MLS sold price to do it.

It doesn't go by what a house COULD sell for...it becomes it's own comparable price when it sells and it used to revalue.. If you want to drop the assessment on your house you need to look at comparable/same/similar properties and what they've SOLD for in the last year. If it's less than the assessment then you can print that and use that as a basis for an abatement in January. You got less than a month to do it..

But i'm telling you in most cases it's not worth it.

Still waiting to hear from the large one in hanover.........come on larry you bitched and moaned.. lets hear the answers.

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

I'll tell you , they definitely don't check what houses sell for. If they did I would have been playing alot more 3 years ago. I asked the assessor if my house would sell for x, and it is less than the y the town says it is worth can't they drop it . He told me that is not how they value property for tax purposes.

[UserRemoved1]

Bill come back later and tell us how you did pse. Be interested to see what you saved for the time invested.

Originally Posted by striperman36

I am appealing

[nightfighter]

Comp rates around north shore.


How Does Marblehead's Tax Rate Compare Across North Shore? - Marblehead, MA Patch

[fishbones]

Salty, I'm a little confused here. You say that the property assessed rate is based on comparable MLS sales in the area. Then you say that the tax rate is adjusted so that the town budget can be met each year. Then you say that they can't just arbitrarily increase taxes to meet their budget targets.

Houses in my neighborhood have sold for 20 to 40% less over the last 3 years than they were selling for prior to that. My assessed value hasn't gone down in the last 3 years.

If they need to meet a town budget number and they have a huge deficit, what is the town going to do? They can't increase the tax rate more than 2.5% without it going to town meeting for a vote. If the real estate markets reflect a big decrease in sold prices in a town, how can they assess the home at a higher rate to make up the budget shortfall? By your logic, they have to do something to make up the deficit. If the assessed value is strictly based on "MLS sold prices", how in the hell can the value of a property go up without any improvements having been made?

And to your point about there being a mistake made on my neighbors property a couple years ago, nice try but you're wrong. The surveyors and assessors maps both clearly show that the land was not useable, and the maps had not changed since the home was built. The town was throwing poop against the wall and hoping some would stick. They figured if they did it to enough people, some of them wouldn't question it.

[RIJIMMY]

Originally Posted by striperman36

I am appealing

I just got off the phone with them. I took the new annual tax and divided it by 4 (qtrly) and the amount due was over by about $100. It didnt make sense to me.
They said that the town is on a fiscal y/e of June. So, the last 2 quarterly payments (in 2010) are actually "estimated" and that I now (and I assume you too) have to make up for the last 2 quarters at the new tax rate.
Nuts.

[UserRemoved1]

Originally Posted by fishbones

Houses in my neighborhood have sold for 20 to 40% less over the last 3 years than they were selling for prior to that. My assessed value hasn't gone down in the last 3 years.

So
Why haven't you filed for an abatement? The town isn't going to do it for you???


"If they need to meet a town budget number and they have a huge deficit, what is the town going to do? They can't increase the tax rate more than 2.5% without it going to town meeting for a vote. If the real estate markets reflect a big decrease in sold prices in a town, how can they assess the home at a higher rate to make up the budget shortfall? By your logic, they have to do something to make up the deficit. If the assessed value is strictly based on "MLS sold prices", how in the hell can the value of a property go up without any improvements having been made?"

I'm not the one who makes the laws/bylaws. It's what we were told is how it's done and this was echoed by my real estate agent who has no iron in the fire...

"And to your point about there being a mistake made on my neighbors property a couple years ago, nice try but you're wrong. The surveyors and assessors maps both clearly show that the land was not useable, and the maps had not changed since the home was built. The town was throwing poop against the wall and hoping some would stick. They figured if they did it to enough people, some of them wouldn't question it."

All I will say is PROVE IT. I don't believe it for a second. Kennedy wasn't shot he's still alive. If you really believe this happened then you got one hell of a lawsuit against the town.

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

So
Why haven't you filed for an abatement? The town isn't going to do it for you???

I have no reason to ask for an abatement. I just gained .01 acres on my property according to the town last year.

"If they need to meet a town budget number and they have a huge deficit, what is the town going to do? They can't increase the tax rate more than 2.5% without it going to town meeting for a vote. If the real estate markets reflect a big decrease in sold prices in a town, how can they assess the home at a higher rate to make up the budget shortfall? By your logic, they have to do something to make up the deficit. If the assessed value is strictly based on "MLS sold prices", how in the hell can the value of a property go up without any improvements having been made?"

I'm not the one who makes the laws/bylaws. It's what we were told is how it's done and this was echoed by my real estate agent who has no iron in the fire...

Oh, I get it. You believe everything you're told. That's your answer for how the assessed value of a property goes up even when the MLS sales in the area shows that the value should be down? You said it's set by the MLS sales in the area, yourself. Your reasoning makes absolutely no sense. Your argument is that you believe what your town tells you and your real estate agent says (although I doubt you actually asked your RE agent about how taxes can go up and down from year to year). Have you ever spoke to anyone on the Board of Assessors in your town? I have. I'm on another board in my town and actually sit in on meetings with them. I have a little bit of insight about the towns budgets, etc...

"And to your point about there being a mistake made on my neighbors property a couple years ago, nice try but you're wrong. The surveyors and assessors maps both clearly show that the land was not useable, and the maps had not changed since the home was built. The town was throwing poop against the wall and hoping some would stick. They figured if they did it to enough people, some of them wouldn't question it."

All I will say is PROVE IT. I don't believe it for a second. Kennedy wasn't shot he's still alive. If you really believe this happened then you got one hell of a lawsuit against the town.

I told you about the assessor and surveyor maps. I saw the maps myself when I went with my neighbor to the town hall. They are the originals. Do you really believe that all towns operate completely above the board, or do you just not know how to say that maybe you were mistaken?

[UserRemoved1]

show me something that shows they arbitrarily changed the tax rate to get more money out of the guy. so far all you've shown is that someone possibly saw a discrepancy in the database and changed it to what they though proper. By your own assertion they even apologized. You prove to me that any town gets away with arbitrarily changing tax rates to increase income. When you do you got my full public apology.

This is getting off tangent here.

We're still waiting to hear back from the original complainer. I'd very much like to know the answers to the questions previously posted. I don't have a problem paying for services used. Some do evidently.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

It is interesting to me that a thread about Property Tax is 20 posts deep and not a single mention of Prop 2 1/2. Towns can't just arbitrarily increase taxes more than 2.5% without requesting an override.

One thing that Bigfish leaves out is if he's paying more money while his assessed value has actually gone down.

As an aside, I've always found the Assessor position being appointed by the town BS. Terrible conflict of interest.

It can go up incrementally 2.5% over one year, but over, say, 10 years, it can go up exponentially.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Mike P

It can go up incrementally 2.5% over one year, but over, say, 10 years, it can go up exponentially.

Compounding interest... 2.5% hasn't kept pace with inflation.