About six weeks ago, I filed an “informal appeal” of the rather insane increase in the tax valuation on the house from $205K to almost $272K hoping they’d see reason and find a much more appropriate number for the next four years.
Theoretically, the county is supposed to base their valuation for residential homes on comparable sales (typically in the year prior to the revaluation which in this case would be 2019). However, in practice, they tend to pitch for as much as they feel they can get away with and then pad that figure by about 10-20% by cherry-picking the most expensive sales and then treating the value of the building and the land it sits on separately even though no one ever buys them separately. This is hardly unique to Wake County…pretty much any taxing authority that taxes on an ad valorem basis does this knowing that they will have appeals they will lose but they will have priced out a lot of the potential risk to their preferred revenue base.
I wish I could say I was surprised when I got the letter that told me “after careful review” that they were sticking with their number. But when you consider that an “informal appeal” is with the same people who came up with the number in the first place, it’s understandable that “after careful review” in their minds is translated as “completely ignoring the facts and the law” governing tax valuation that led to their number in the first place!
I’d be shocked if they didn’t just send that letter to everyone that filed an informal appeal hoping that the taxpayer will just go away and fork over the money. History has shown that about 80-90% of homeowners don’t even bother to appeal their assessment at all and of the ones that do, the majority give the county what they want by giving up at this stage.
That’s why I expect the formal appeal I just filed for a hearing before the Board of Equalization will probably end up with the same result, especially now that the economy has taken a big nose dive.
The only question in my mind is are they going to be as blatant about following their informal but very apparent marching orders to deny every appeal as they were in 2011?
Erik Williams
7 Apr 2020(David Falwell)
When we refinanced back in Dec, the appraisal we got for the loan and then the following letter from Wake Co were within 5k of each other, so I will grin and bear it.
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5K I could live with. 66K in *EAST RALEIGH* when the most expensive property the county is using as a comparable is 800 sq ft larger and last sold for $259K…as in $13K less than they’re pitching. And the most expensive comparably sized property sold for $248 ($22K less than the proposed valuation)? I don’t think so…Homey don’t play that game. It’ll take a few months and I’m likely going to appeal to the State PTC but I beat Wake County in 2011 and I fully expect to do so again this year! 🙂
The only reason I didn’t appeal in 2016 was that the county dropped my valuation from the $212K we had settled on prior to actually being heard in front of the PTC to the current $205K which looking at comparable sales was actually lower than I expected them to pitch.