Drastic increase in property taxes.?

Question

I live in a not-too-great neighborhood in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My taxes for 2006 were $2,400 based on a $100,000 assessed value. (I paid $150K for the house in 2005). I had my upstairs remodeled and, like an idiot, I did things the legal way and pulled permits. When the work was completed I got a notice from the city that said, "We notice you recently pulled a building permit. We're now going to stop by and reassess the value of your property so we can make sure you're paying as much in taxes as is humany possible." After their re-evaluation my property value went from $100K to $183K so my taxes will be up to about $4,400.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that someone has to pay for the services the city provides but I'm not prepared for my taxes to almost double within a one-year period. Is my house more likely to catch on fire or be burglarized after the remodeling? So why should my taxes go up so much? Is there anything I can do?

Answer 1

Even if you had not done the remodel job, it's highly likely that your property valuation would have been re-set to the purchase price. That is common practice. Even without the remodel job it's very likely that you tax bill would have increased to $3,600 or so within a year or 2 of the purchase.

Your only hope of any relief with this is if state law mandates that property taxes are based upon some lower value, sometimes as a percentage of Fair Market Value. However it sounds like WI does things line TX does and pegs the value for property tax purposes at the FMV of the home at least once the property changes hands and/or a permit is pulled for remodeling work.

Answer 2

You can dispute the value of your home to the city assessor but this is a long process and 90% of the time the value will not change. I live in the east part of Eau Claire, Wisconsin on a small lake and taxes on my home went from $2,610 to $4,950 in a span of one year. The city, just like the county, state, and federal, have no place to go for more tax money so people who own things. more so property, are being victimized by local government. Im working middleclass and with the hike in prices from everything to my property taxes to gas and food prices, I may no longer be able to afford the extras in life one deserves for working all their life. About the only bill I have that goes down on a regular basis is my auto insurance, along with my savings account, I put away less than half I did no more than 3 years ago due to TAXES! Your property is not in more danger of being burglarized or catching fire, your taxes should not go up at all for remodeling, and there is nothing we can do. When you disagree with the government you become a criminal, so what freedom do we really have?

Answer 3

Property taxes have traditionally been based on the "assessed" value of your property. If you nearly double the value of your home you can assume that your property tax will "nearly double". On behalf of all those that want to tax the "rich", I think you just got your first hint of what they think qualifies as "the rich". The only thing that you can do is appeal the assessment. If you have clear evidence that the assessment is high you may have a chance.

Answer 4

You can appeal the assessment - if you can show that your house is now assessed higher than comparable houses in the area, you might be able to get it knocked down some.

If you paid $150K for it in 2005, sounds like maybe it was somewhat underassessed before the reassessment, so maybe not all of the increase was due to the remodeling.

Good luck.

Answer 5

You can protest the value, but it sounds fair based on what you told us.