Final Edition

Due to the lack of interest in trying to get some support to stop the assessor from raising your property taxes. This is my last response on appealing to the State Board of Equalization Commission.

If you should decide to appeal your assessment. I leave you with these last couple of pointers.

Last step is as follow: Do not appeal to the state unless you have a current appraisal and the appraiser that is willing to appear with you at the appeal hearing. Anything less and you might as well not appeal as you will lose.

Next, once you file your appeal you will get a notice of your hearing date. When you get, the notice it will inform you of when you must provide your documents to the state and the county assessor. Please understand that the assessor will use your own documents against you. When you get a date to submit documents make sure that “whatever you do, do not provide your documents more than one (1) day before that date they are due”
The county assessor will get the same notice that you get and they must also provide documents on what they will be presenting to the state and you. You must not give them time to respond to your documents or to setup a defense, they will employ an attorney to question you and your appraiser. It is up to you to not provide them with your documents or appraisal before the due date. If you should decide to be the good tax payer and send in everything early you will lose!!

Last but not least, I have appealed five (5) times and I have lost five (5) times. All I can say, it has not been a good experience and I wish it on no one. My advice to you, is do not waste your money and don’t appeal unless you are totally prepared to lose!!

GOOD LUCK TO ALL

Continuation #2

The continuing Tax Assessor saga

One of the assessor’s tools is intimidation. Their bible is “Winning Through Intimidation”. How does it all work? Well, step one is a raise in your property taxes. You will undoubtedly question why the increase? If you are like me you take the next step and file an appeal. Now is when the trouble starts, when you appear before the Local Board of Equalization. Unless you have talked with someone that has already been before the Board you will more than likely fail to get a reduction. If you do like I did you’ll will bring all the documentation to prove they are wrong about your assessment. The first question regardless of what your documentation is, will be is do you have an appraisal? More than likely you did not put out the $400+- to get one. If by chance you did get an appraisal the next will be, is your appraiser here? You will find that most appraisers do not want anything to do with appearing before the Board. Once again intimidation is at play as the appraiser works and make a living in the county and there could be a problem if you can understand what I mean. At this point the Board will tell you that they will let you know what their deaccession is by mail. You more than likely get a no change order from the Board and that is it there is no going back.

Something I do not want to leave out. At every hearing you appear at, you will find that the senior county appraiser will be in attendance. He will provide the hearing with every bit of information about your property and some comp you have never seen. Inputs will be made about your property being under appraised. Now is when the real intimidation gets started and you get you first property tax increase. One of two things will happen next. You will give up and more than likely say I don’t want any more increases. This where the tax assessor has achieved the goal by Winning Through Intimation. If this don’t set well you will take the next step.

Next, is option number two after losing at the local Board level is to appeal to the State of Tennessee. This step is were you will appear before a State of Tennessee Judge to hear your appeal. The same game will be played. The same questions will be asked, do you have an appraisal, is your appraiser here? Once again, the senior county appeaser will be there to make sure that everyone knows your property is under value and needs to be increased. Also, you get the same ending which is you be notified of the judge’s decision by mail. Hope for the best as it will be one or the other. You get a no change order or you will another tax increase order. There are two more options left after this one.

I WILL CONTINUE #3 NEXT WEEK

I am going to start writing informational articles in my opinion about the County Tax Assessor. I want to tell everyone in the County about county tax assessor along with senior tax appraiser and how they are raising your property taxes. They start with a property reappraisal which starts the process. If you appeal your increase and go before the Board of Trustees by yourself without an appraisal and the appraiser you will lose, most of the time. If quit them and don’t take it to the next level of appeal, you will be a winner. If you should file the next level appeal and go before the Board of Equalization Judge from State Capital. You need to have again an appraisal and the appraiser with you or you will lose before it even starts. If you should follow all the steps you might have a chance of a small reduction. In most cases the senior appraiser will be there and he will present a set of comps to disprove your appraisal and shows your property value to much higher he will also try to have the judge approve a new tax increase on your property taxes. If you’re like me you will take the next step and go before the Board of Equalization Commission. At this point thing will really start getting good!!! The best thing to do is don’t appeal at all, but if you’re like you won’t be able to let go! I think there are many of you that know what am saying and you’ve experienced this for yourself.

My goal is to get enough tax payers interested in maybe starting a class action lawsuit. If we do not get our taxation under control, we will be the losers and the underhanded increases and appeals will run the fixed income people out.

For now, consider this to be a work of fiction!?

TO BE CONTINUED