Quote:
Originally Posted by ericschand
I went through this about 10 years ago. The assessed value was something like $50-60k over the purchase price.
I phoned and disputed the assessment as I had purchased the house a couple of months before.
They phoned me back with two people on the line. Essentially their argument was, "How do we know you aren't friends and they sold it to you for cheap?" What possible response is there to that? "Uh...well...they aren't my friends, how are you alleging that they are?"
From there they offered $20k above purchase price. After that, if I wanted to continue the dispute, I would have to pay a fee and have an in person appeal. The fee was non-refundable if I lost, if I recall correctly. So in essence, pay a fee, if I lose I lose the fee, plus take at least one day off work. I settled on the 20k.
However, the following year the assessed value rose dramatically. Then again the following year. My neighbours did not. Then everyone else had a huge increase but mine remained about the same.
You may win now, but you won't win down the road.
ers
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I think you might have to fight them twice. I bought a place and it was assessed at 50% more than I paid for it, and fought it. Won easily. The next year they jacked it again, and we fought it again. Still used the comp from our purchase, plus looked up assessments of similar units. That year the city person argued that our 2 bedroom condo was more similar to 3 bedrooms in another building, not comparable to the other two bedrooms that had sold in our building. Won again, and have been consistently lower than the neighbours since then.