Should I dispute my property tax?

[gildo]

As I always I turn to my friends at CP for ideas. Here is my scenario we built a house in New Brighton and it wasn't complete until mid to late August, our possesion date was Aug. 20 / 2009. The City keeps saying the taxes are according to your house as of July 2009, so although our house was almost complete we were surprised to get an assessment of $437,000 for the home, is the City saying they think our house was worth that much even though it wasn't complete? I guess they look at exterior not interior anyways as my wife said, I still think it's too high, should I dispute it?

[ken0042]

No, it's what it would have sold for in July, based on the condition in December.

So in December it was complete.

[Incinerator]

What Ken said, so if you think the City should've just assessed the land then no.

However if you still think it's too high, (has to be pretty high to make a difference in your taxes) you can order an independent appraisal and appeal through the Assessment Review Board.

[gildo]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!

[onetwo_threefour]

What'll really frost your a$$ is if you get a supplemental tax assessment for Aug. 20- Dec. 31 since the property was complete at that time and the City can charge taxes based on the higher assessed value once the property was completed... (The original 2009 tax levy would have been based on the level of completion as at December '08, so the taxes would otherwise be quite a bargain for the latter part of 2009 if they didn't up the levy to reflect the higher value at completion in August)

Hopefully they won't bother, but it is the norm for the City to do it.

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by onetwo_threefour

What'll really frost your a$$ is if you get a supplemental tax assessment for Aug. 20- Dec. 31 since the property was complete at that time and the City can charge taxes based on the higher assessed value once the property was completed... (The original 2009 tax levy would have been based on the level of completion as at December '08, so the taxes would otherwise be quite a bargain for the latter part of 2009 if they didn't up the levy to reflect the higher value at completion in August)

Hopefully they won't bother, but it is the norm for the City to do it.

He's probably fine judging by his assessed value of $437K, if it was $237K (that would be land only) then ya he's getting the supplemental stick up the rear for sure.