During the last several a long time, homeowners have gotten used to paying roughly the identical property tax bill every 12 months. An occasional increase wasn’t unheard of, but in case your taxes did go up, it was often pretty insignificant — around 0.5% to 1% on average.
Imagine, then, the sheer panic Chicago resident Darryl Lloyd felt when he opened his 2024 property tax bill and located it had skyrocketed from $1,800 to greater than $30,000 — a rise of about 1,500% — in a single 12 months.
Frantic, Lloyd contacted his local tax assessor’s office, which brushed off his concern, based on Fox 32 Chicago. Eventually, the office admitted the bill was based on an incorrect property assessment, which valued his 960-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bath home at over $1 million. And in the course of the search, the town found a further 4,400 properties that had also been miscalculated, the network says.
Nationwide, property taxes increased by about 26% between 2019 and 2023, based on data analytics firm CoreLogic, largely because of skyrocketing home values in the course of the pandemic. Still, data from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation shows that between 30% and 60% of all taxable property within the U.S. is over-assessed. Worse yet: Only 5% of house owners challenge the bill, the muse says.
Most U.S. counties have an on-staff property value administrator (PVA), an elected official who’s answerable for assessing nearly every bit of property inside his or her municipality. But it is a massive task, and based on Colton Pace, CEO of Ownwell, a start-up specializing in helping homeowners reduce and appeal their property tax bills, its own the overwhelming majority of tax offices depend on computer-generated algorithms to finish. And if the algorithm makes a mistake, it’s as much as the property owner to repair it.
Here’s tips on how to check the maths:
The 1st step: A couple of months before your tax bill arrives, you must receive an auto-generated property assessment within the mail. (The precise date for each of those notices varies widely by state.) Ensure every physical detail on that document — the square footage, variety of bedrooms and age of your own home, etc. — is accurate.
Step two: The assessment must also include an approximate value for your own home. Was there a big increase? Does it seem too high? How does it compare with other properties nearby? In case you’re unsure, look up the assessed values of your neighbors’ homes online or in person at your county clerk or tax assessor’s office.
Step three: Now it’s time to be sure you’ve received all of the tax exemptions you’re entitled to. Most jurisdictions give no less than one exemption to each homeowner living there, provided the house is their primary address, but that’s not the one potential write-off. In case you’re a senior or a veteran, or have recently made renovations to your own home, it’s possible you’ll qualify for added exemptions.
Step 4: In case you catch any mistakes, find that you just aren’t getting a tax reduction you’re entitled to or just imagine the assessment is simply too high, it’s time to file an appeal. (Pace says some jurisdictions call this a “challenge,” a “protest,” a “grievance” or a “petition.”) Depending on where you reside, you’ll have between 30 and 60 days to file, so it’s necessary to know your deadline and appeal inside that timeframe. Otherwise, you’ll don’t have any alternative but to pay the bill that inevitably arrives.
In case you resolve to challenge the assessment, prepare to plead your case before an appeals board. Gather all of the supporting documentation you may (comparative market analyses, home renovation invoices, etc), and ask an area tax expert to present you the rundown on what to anticipate on the hearing.
There are firms, like Pace’s, dedicated to finding exemptions, verifying the accuracy of tax assessments, and representing homeowners who aren’t comfortable going to a hearing alone. Whichever route you select, you’ll should be proactive—the window of opportunity is normally pretty short.
