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Christine's Blog: Don't Take Your Property Tax Assessment Lying Down (6/22/09)
Christine fights (and wins!) a property tax dispute
Hi Everyone!
Last week was a pretty fruitful one for me: I had a ton of inquiries! (I think everyone was waiting until the last minute to book their summer travels.) But the biggest triumph of the week was that I successfully fought and won a property tax dispute over our primary home here in Austin, which had an assessed tax value I felt was about $50,000 more than it should have been.
The dispute process was actually pretty painless. First, I had to fill out and mail in a property tax protest form. Within a few weeks I received a letter from the tax office with an informal hearing date and time as well as a formal hearing date and time.
When I arrived, I saw that everyone else had huge folders or fileboxes with all sorts of papers. But I, having never protested taxes before, was empty-handed. I sat there sheepishly wondering if I was wasting my time, but when it was my turn I simply walked up to the appraiser's desk and told her I had no documentation. She smiled and said it was no big deal.
She explained the process to me this way: The point of the informal hearing was to see if we could resolve the dispute here and now. If we could not, then it would go onto the formal hearing, at which time it would be advisable to have documentation (an appraisal, print out of comparable sales in the area, a floor plan of the home with square footage, etc.).
We chatted for about five minutes and I told her why I felt my taxes were too high. She looked up comparable sales in my area and said she'd be able to lower my taxable value by $50,000 — which, by my estimate, should save us around $1,000 per year in property taxes. And that was it!
It really was that easy. So if you feel like your property appraised value is too high, take it from a new veteran of the process: Go for it!
Christine
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Have you ever disputed your property taxes? How has the process gone for you?
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© Copyright 2009 Christine Karpinski
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