If an appeal was hard fought and won, the assessment should not increase in the following years. Any increase after an appeal is too much.
Currently, the law discourages assessors from increasing the assessment in the year immediately following a reduction from an appeal. While it doesn’t expressly prohibit assessors from increasing your assessment after an appeal, the burden of proof is on them to show the reason for the increase. The homeowner must appeal again but, if the assessor does not meet that burden, the assessment automatically returns to the previous assessment.
The current law was placed on the books because of widespread arbitrary values being placed on people’s homes. In some cases, assessments were increased back up to the same rate prior to an appeal the very next year. This placed an undue burden on the taxpayers. Some would have to spend considerable time going through the appeal process year after year.
Will the new law negate the protections of the current law? Will assessors be encouraged to place a 3% increase on your assessment every year?
As a person whose job it is to appeal property taxes, I see increases after an appeal happen time and time again. While I’m happy to help my clients at a discounted rate when this happens, I am doing what I can to advocate for better laws to protect taxpayers from having to appeal their taxes multiple times. I have reached out to our state legislators working on this. We will be working toward a law that is fair for the taxpayers and make sure it doesn’t have unintended consequences.
I will be keeping a close eye on this. This bill, HB1046 is currently in committee. I will let you know if there are any developments.
