Do I have to let an assessor into a property to do an assessment? Since I’ve done a lot of work to the property, I’m assuming the city’s assessment will go up aka my property taxes go up. What if I just don’t let the guy in to complete the assessment? Any advice, tips, or tricks to help me avoid my property taxes going up? (that’s really my concern at the heart of it all)
I think a lot of times they just drive by. I wouldn’t sweat it much. If you’ve done a lot to change the outside, that might be a concern though.
Yeah, I just filed two buildings permits lately, I had the house sided plus two bathrooms gutted and remodeled. The assessor actually came to my front door while my wife was at home, and said he needed to do an interior inspection and she didn’t let him in so he left a notice saying to call city hall to have the assessment done. I’m pretty sure he was legit because of the info that he left. Can I just ignore him, or does he have a legal right to come inside my house to do an assessment?
Don’t know. Our properties are in areas where the cities/counties aren’t very pro-active about that stuff. I wonder if this is a regular periodic assessment or if your permits triggered the extra attention? I went round and round with the assessor’s office here. We were looking at one property they had assessed at 80k. It had been on the market for a couple years at 51.9k. When I questioned them on the numbers for this property, they tried feeding me a line of crap about a 5 yr sliding scale for assessments. Problem with their argument is this property has never been worth anything near what they’re claiming. I digress…
Thanks for the input Justin. Anybody else know if city assessors have a legal right to the interior of my house for the purposes of doing an assessment, or can I just blow it off?
Was it an "Inspector’ or an “Assessor”? Maybe the city just stopped by to inspect your work?
Pretty sure its an assessor. The card they left at my door said “To have your property accurately assessed, please contact city hall within 5 days.”
New siding and bathroom remodeling are more in the line of upkeep rather than a big new pool or room addition. Do you have a dollar amount you could give the assessor?
You could calculate your own increase if you call the assessor’s office and ask how much a 15K, 30K, 100K improvement will cost you in increased assessment.
For me, worrying about an unknown is always worse than finding out the answers and just dealing with it!
Furnishedowner
I’ve had houses assessed and there’s nothing to do. You just get a letter in the mail saying that they’ve already assessed and you find out what they think it’s worth. If you feel it’s too high, you can dispute it. That’s all there is to it.