Appealing Your Tax Assessment – Your Next Chance

Appealing Your Tax Assessment – Your Next Chance

by Mike Peacock

Back in March of ’08, owners of 117 Highland Lake area properties filed appeals on their tax assessments. The Board of Assessment Appeals approved assessment reductions averaging $24,600, representing an average tax reduction of just over $600 per year. Most of the reductions were in the value of land, reflecting factors such as steep slopes, wetlands or the presence of permanent easements that limit full usage of the properties.

Your next opportunity to file an appeal with the Board of Assessment Appeals is in March 2009. To file an appeal, you must fill out a form, available at the Town Assessor’s office, and file it by March 20. The Assessor will then assign a date for your appeal hearing before the Board. The form can also be downloaded directly from the Town’s website by using the link http://www.townofwinchester.org/pdfs/baaptn.pdf.

On the form you will identify the owner and address of the property, reason for the appeal and the estimated value of the proposed changes. If it is not possible to file the appeal yourself, you may appoint a friend or representative to do it for you. The process itself is not difficult but it does require some research to compare assessed values or actual sales of similar properties.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

  1. Get a copy of your property record from the Town Assessor
  2. Examine the record and verify the items and features for which you are being assessed. Items such as lot size, square footage of your buildings, year they were built, features such as fireplaces, Jacuzzi’s, etc., may not be accurate. If you find errors, the Assessor can usually correct the property record without going through the appeal process. Some of these items like building square footage or age of the structure can have a big impact on your valuation.
  3. There are other factors that are more subjective, i.e., topography or road accessibility, that are used by the assessor to establish the value of the land portion of your property assessment. Unless there is an obvious misjudgment by the assessor, you will have to file a formal appeal to challenge these assumptions. The assessor uses a variable built into the land record called the “Condition Factor” to reflect these nuances. Most of us have been assigned a C Factor of 1.0, which assumes a typical, gently sloping, accessible piece of lake property. If you have been assigned a 1.0 and have something other than a level, accessible piece of property, then the Appeal Board has the latitude to lower your land assessment, provided you supply evidence to support your case, i.e., similar properties that have been discounted with lower C factors. Photos are helpful. Your property may also have been assigned a “special pricing factor” that increases the valuation to reflect a “good” or “excellent” view. You may feel your view classification doesn’t match up to similar properties and is worthy of a challenge.

    For more information on this subject I would recommend checking out a couple of websites. The National Taxpayers Union (www.ntu.org) has lots of useful information and has produced a brochure, “How to Fight Your Property Taxes,” which can be ordered on the website. Business Week has several articles and tools for challenging tax assessments that can be found by using the link http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_45/b4057079.htm.

    Email any comments to me at mhpeacock@charter.net.


    Back to Winter 2009 Newsletter Table of Contents