I wonder if I made a mistake, or if I had no choice.
We moved to our current house six years ago, and the property taxes are what they are. Since we moved in, we’ve added a huge deck and hot tub and renovated three bathrooms and the kitchen. We’re really happy with the house.
We received a letter from the town that inspectors from some company have been hired by the town to go into houses, verify what the town records say, and provide updated information to provide for new assessments – directly tied to property taxes, of course.
The inspector came to our house the other day and I let her in – I didn’t think I had a choice, so I did. I showed her around the house, and the good news is that I was able to demonstrate that one of the former full baths is now a half bath, and one area that used to be two rooms has been combined into one room. So instead of nine rooms and three baths, our house is now eight rooms and two and a half baths. She agreed and made notes.
But, as I mentioned, everything is very updated.
So – did I make a mistake letting her in, or did I have no choice? And, most importantly, will my property taxes go up, or go down?
In our town’s reval, the inspector noted the number of rooms and the tax calculation was based on that and square footage. There was a note as to the “quality” of our home (they used some ranking system that I don’t remember) but it did not impact the taxes. I would be more concerned about the addition of the huge deck (if they consider that living space) than the update of the interior, especially if there are now fewer full baths/rooms. Our home is relatively new for the community so we had the pleasure of subsidizing the 100-year-old homes that had never been reassessed for the past 25 years. In the reval our taxes, while still obnoxiously high, went down.
Our county does not have the staff to come and poke around often. When we sold our House1, I noticed that the county tax records had photos of it that were about 10 years old (the tax $$, of course, went up since then). House2 had a B/W photo dated 2000, and after we bought it, the assessor just slapped one listing photo onto the record. Here, lot size, conforming living space size, non-conforming living space, outdoor structures like sheds and decks, number of toilets, and construction grade seem to factor into the tax.
Although I do not know for certain, I think that one could refuse unless they have a warrant or court order. Or that the occupant had already given explicit authorization for unannounced inspections through a lease or homeowners’ association requirement. But even these types of contractual agreements typically require a minimum of 24 hours notice.
In my area, we are asked to let them in or they have to guess. You don’t want them guessing, certainy not based on what the neighbors have or some other formula assumption. The on-prem is no big deal. We get reevaluated every three years, I think.
The bigger issue is your city or town’s tax rates and how (if) they discount for homewoner-occupied or sometimes, owner age. (Sometimes, you want to verify this is done properly.) Any rate changes usually have public hearings and if a big jump is requested, get your frends and go downtown to register protest. But in my area, when the rates jumped, so did the homeowner exemption.
The value growth in your close neighborhood can also affect this, notjust your own home.
I would not want to invite an inspector in, at the very least I would tell them to wait, close the door, go inside and google it as I am sure it is different state by state. Our state does adjust for ‘quality’ level, I know my neighbor was successful in downgrading their quality level to reduce taxes.
It takes mine less than ten minutes, he not only has id (and we get a letter beforehand,) but it’s the same guy as past years. He just walks through to verify things are as before. YMMV. Sometimes, he remeasures outside.
If you had to pull permits to do the renovations, then they know you made renovations. Better for them to base any increase on the work that was actually done, because if they guess, they’re going to err on the high side.
In our town they’d probably go down since it goes by square feet of house and lot and number of bathroom fixtures, but other adjacent towns in the same country also take note of what materials were used, so just replacing formica counters with stone could theoretically cause an increase. Our town hasn’t done a reasassment since the 1950s, but other towns have gone through the process. Anyway, you’d need to call the assessor’s office and find out how they calculate the assessment in your town.
Remember that the town already has information on any of your renovations that required either a building permit, a certificate of occupancy, or both. So the inspection likely added nothing.
Agree. If you’ve made improvements they have the permits. We don’t let them in. They have the permitting and plans from our re-do 25 years ago. Nothing has changed since then :-).
In our town, unless you are changing the plumbing or messing with the electrical, you do not need a permit to replace floors, vanity, toilets, sinks, and paint a bathroom.
The value of a house here is based primarily on sq footage and number of finished rooms. Then they add unfinished space, garages, and things like porches and decks.
Then the size of the lot is added on. For example, we have two acres which has a higher value than a 1/4 acre lot.
First, I had received a letter from the town that these people were coming, and the woman had her ID with her. Of course I’d never let someone in I wasn’t expecting or if I didn’t know who they were. She was kosher.
And Yes, when we made the improvements we pulled permits and we received the Certificates of Occupancy. Everything was on the up and up.
I’m encouraged by those who say it just depends on the number of rooms and baths, because then I think I win. But I’m discouraged by whoever said the addition of the large deck might increase the assessment.