New version of Toledo Talk

Speaking of property taxes... - Another poster's comment about local property taxes in the "What do you think of when you hear Toledo..." thread got me thinking about our newly assessed taxes.

We're in a new neighborhood, so the assessment was just recently completed for us and all of our neighbors at approximately the same time. And, we all just recently received our new property tax amounts. The tax bill was roughly close to what I was expecting, so I didn't think too much of it. However, I just went on to Aeris out of curiosity to see what the taxes run in our neighborhood, and we have the highest property taxes of our entire subdivision. This doesn't seem right to me - we certainly don't have the largest house or lot. In fact, the house across from us has a corner lot (which is larger than ours), has roughly the same square footage, and was purchased for about $8K more than our house...yet they have an assessed value of $42K less than our house and property tax of $1200 less per year. (The only difference I could tell from Aeris is that they are listed with 3 bedrooms, while we have 4. But, they still have the same square footage AND a larger lot.)

That's just one example, but every house in our neighborhood has at least $800 less in taxes per year than us. Doesn't seem right, considering that we're middle of the road in size for our neighborhood.

Is there anything that we can do to question this with the auditor, and if so, how do you go about doing that? Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give!
posted by mom2 to home improvement at 10:14 A.M. EST     (5 Comments)

Comments ...

fyi - the number of bedrooms and bathrooms does impact the valuation regardless of lot size and square footage...

Finished basements also count as living space...when we were doing work on our basement, we asked how our plans would impact our taxes. Since we don't have baseboards, finished windows with trim, carpeting, etc...it still counts as a basement even though we have furniture there and a throw rug on the floor.

These are things to consider, but a phone call to the auditor's office can address some of these issues...they can also explain the appeal process to you.
posted by MaggieThurber at 11:26 A.M. EST on Mon Jan 29, 2007     #

It very well could be that Areis hasn't been updated for your neighbors.
posted by Eastsider at 12:07 P.M. EST on Mon Jan 29, 2007     #

fyi - the number of bedrooms and bathrooms does impact the valuation regardless of lot size and square footage

I thought the bedroom might have something to do with it. The neighbor I referenced above has the same number of bathrooms and roughly the same square footage - only difference is that we have 4 bedrooms vs their 3.

Our basement is not finished - we don't even have furniture down there, just bare concrete and boxes.

It very well could be that Areis hasn't been updated for your neighbors.

All of the records for our neighborhood show on Aeris as updated in November. Our property taxes are just shy of $5,500 for the year, while the above referenced neighbor is roughly $4,200. It doesn't seem that a 1 bedroom difference should make a $42K difference in assessed value and have that much of a discrepancy in the property taxes. (Especially when their lot size is bigger and they actually paid more for their house.) And that's just one example, the other homes in our neighborhood had similar comparisons.

I think I will have to make a call to the auditor's office - there are other homes in our neighborhood that also have 4 bedrooms, and they are still about $800 less than us for the year. We were the only home out of the 15 or so in our neighborhood that has taxes significantly over $5K - everyone else who was updated is in the mid $4K range.
posted by mom2 at 12:42 P.M. EST on Mon Jan 29, 2007     #

Hey Ben Kanop, where's my Tax Break you promised all of us?
posted by Attitude at 02:14 P.M. EST on Mon Jan 29, 2007     #

mom - I only know two people who contacted the Auditors' office following the property revaluation. They both had very favorable outcomes and they spoke highly of the staff they spoke to. Maybe give them a call and ask?

I was kind of surprised, but apparently you can just call and ask. I made a call to this same office and asked about the mills and tax breakdown and I spoke to a very nice man there last year myself. He didn't make me feel stupid, although since I'm paying all this money and didn't exactly know where it was going - he would have every right to giggle at me a little :-)

He faxed information over to me that day and followed up with a fat manila envelope of information.
posted by katie82640 at 05:08 P.M. EST on Mon Jan 29, 2007     #

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