You and "YOUR" Property Tax Bill -- My Prescription Provided Pain Relief
By now you should have paid your final tax bill for the year and it likely hurt because it was up substantially from last year.
The question is - did you pay more than your fair share or less?
I felt I was going to be paying more than my fair share. The big red flag for me was that my assessment jumped 34.33%, more than double the average increase, while the average home's assessed value went up just over 14% .
While it is unlikely anyone who felt their home was under assessed would appeal their assessments many who felt they were over assessed took the time to do a little research and fought for some fairness in their assessment and the resulting tax bill.
For me it was a matter of going to the assessment open house to see if my Assessment Was Fair and Equitable. I was not surprised to find that there was no information available and that it really was only an opportunity to talk with an assessor to explain why I thought my assessed value was incorrect.
Luckily I went prepared and the assessor was willing to listen. She took my information as presented and told me she would review my assessment back in the office to verify my points.
Including several phone calls over the next little while I spent about 3 hours of my time before I agreed to the new assessment that she offered by way of minutes of settlement, this avoided the necessity of filing and going through the time consuming process of an appeal.
THE BOTTOM LINE
- My total assessment was reduced by $38,000
- My Savings the first year $129.34
- My savings over the four years $1,293.37
- My time was worth over $400.00 an hour.
My savings in this example over the four years is based on the four year phase in of our new assessments assuming the mill rate does not go up.
Wait For It - It Gets Better
- If we assume a mill rate increase of 3.5% annually that savings gets better.
- My Savings the first year $129.34
- My savings over the four years $1,386.31
- My time was now worth over $462.00 an hour.
My savings in this example over the four years is based on the four year phase in of our new assessments assuming the mill rate goes up 3.5% a year.
The Real Bottom Line
I won't really know for another three years until all the mill rates are set.
Stay Tuned --- .
It will be interesting to watch what happens to
"Your" Property Tax Bill
With the phasing in of the province wide
re-assessment affecting your 2010 property tax bill.
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Appealing an assessment can really be worthwhile, eh?
Brenda - it helps to have an understanding of how the system works - mass appraisal (as practiced by assessors) only works in large areas where homes are very similar