Quote:
Originally Posted by Torture
How much of an uphill battle would it be?
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The first steps are simple, free and relatively informal. First go on the assessment site, compare your value with your neighbours and find a couple comparable houses in your community. If they are significantly cheaper, there's really no harm to call the city.
As the assessment is based on a number of factors outside of the physical building and lot, including location to amenities/schools/green spaces/etc. or views from property etc. it's easiest if you can find similar homes closest to you. You should be looking at ones with similar square footage above and below grade but keep in mind other factors like garage vs no-garage, renovation level and age of house.
Assuming you can find ones assessed as significantly cheaper than your assessment, use them as support when you contact the city. This is an encouraged practice, so you can be upfront that you found some assessed as cheaper and are inquiring as to why your assessment was more. They should be able to provide some reasoning but they will now have to keep in mind that anything that applies to your home should also apply to the others if they are similar enough. The phonecall is not quite a "negotiation", but it is suppose to be the "informal" way to be reassessed. You can also request an assessor contact you in-person for free if you want to go that route.
Only if you're unhappy with the outcome of the phonecall would you need to really start the formal, uphill battle, which is filing a formal complaint with the Assessment Review Board, which requires a filing fee, a hearing date, etc. which probably wouldn't be worth it to you.