Fighting your property tax bill, without the fight

Life gets more complicated every day, we're all too busy, no one has time. That's why this post will be short.

Because of falling housing prices, just about everybody in America believes they're paying too much in property taxes. But fighting City Hall takes time and effort, which we don't have.

Enter companies like Tax Appeal Express:  "Home values have fallen drastically in the past three years. As a result, many of you are over assessed which means you are PAYING TOO MUCH in property taxes. Tax Appeal Express is in the business of reducing your assessed value, lowering your property taxes, and in many cases getting a refund from the County Assessor's Office."

Your could also try reducetaxnow.com, which offers a similar service.

Tax Appeal Express will charge you between $149 and $249. ReduceTaxNow will charge you 1/10th of 1% of the value of your home -- $600 for a $600,0000 home.

An update, and a caveat: The office of the assessor in L.A. County is conducting a blanket review of homes purchased between July 2004 and June 2007, with an eye toward reducing assessed values when appropriate. The assessor's website notes that homeowners are also being solicited by private firms (like those mentioned here) offering to file appeals: "Solicitations of this type may not be illegal, but property owners should be aware that the Assessor’s Office provides a simple filing process for a reduction in their property taxes at no charge." You can find that statement, plus a link to the "reassessment" application form, here.

Two observations: If the Boston Tea Party were held today, I can guarantee you the patriots would hire some day laborers to go down to the harbor and dump the tea for them. Nobody does anything themselves any more.

Second: I heard a Tax Appeal Express ad on AM radio yesterday. If federal regulators had listened to more AM radio over the last five years, they would have known exactly what was going on in the mortgage business. AM radio ads leave nothing to the imagination.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.

Comments

[John]

Don't be silly, we wouldn't have a Boston Tea Party today. Just think about what a revolution would do to home prices!

[inland empire]

This is a joke right people aren't falling for this I hope. My MIL got one of these letter and call asking my advice on it. I told her no way this is a scam and please don't even think about it. They want $95.00 to process a request for her property to be reassessed for San Bernardino property tax . Please just submit the request yourself on your county website.
"Proposition 8, passed in November 1978, amended Proposition 13 to reflect declines in value. As a result,
Revenue and Taxation Code Section 51 requires the Assessor to annually enroll either a property's factored
Proposition 13 base year value or its Market Value as of January 1 (lien date), taking into account any factors
causing a decline in value, whichever is less"
I submit ours in March and got a response in two weeks. Which is going to mean a big drop out here in the high desert our property values have drop about 40% off 2007 property taxes amount.

A copy of their response:
Hi,

I have forwarded your Prop 8 application to our Victorville office where
an appraiser will review your property.
You should see a change on your property tax bill that is due in
December.

Talli Simmons
Taxpayer Advocate to
BILL POSTMUS, Assessor
San Bernardino County

[Jennifer]

We have had a decline in our townhouse, but our realtor actually sent us the application, along with the current sales in our neighborhood to support the drop in value before we got to it. I hope that the people who fell for the liar loans don't fall for the pay us to help you lower your property taxes scam. Just do it yourself!!!!

[tew]

"..I can guarantee you the patriots would hire some day laborers to go down to the harbor and dump the tea for them."

I love it!

Hopefully the nanny will print this out for folks so they can see it.

[Derrick]

Peter,

Assessors are pretty good about processing Prop 8 decline in value assessed valuation readjustments. I had a condo in Reseda that was trashed by the 1994 quake and there was quite a lot of talk at the HOA meetings about how to get re-assessed (at a lower valuation). Some people even hired the services you mention to do it for them.

But before I got around to it, the Assessor did it automagically.

-Derrick

[Steve]

This is a very easy process and to be honest most times you are succssful. I do it for all of my houses and can save a bundle

[NewtoLA]

I once heard that if you want homeowners to identify the true value of their home for property taxes you should require them to provide the price they would take to move out of their house. And if someone offers them that price they have to take it.

[Mr.Market]

I tried to lower my property taxes on my own and it was a absolute headache! It took me months to get answers to my simple questions. I ended up Googling "prop 8" and I found a company called www.prop8.org. They saved me over $1,800 a year. Yeah it cost me some money to save some money but in the end my SANITY was worth it! Good luck guys!

[clownsta]

Wow newspapers

Where have you guys been. we started the recall in jan of last year and we have until nov 17 to get the required 78,000 signatures so it looks like we will have to file another recall when the time elapses. what happened when the DA raided his office and his head assessor is under inditement and a million other things like his drug problem well better later then never i guess. Hope to see you around san berdoodoo clownty now that you are on story.

your humble Clownsta
E.T . Snell
www.sbcountyrecall.com
snell@earthlink.net

[Ben Simons]

THESE SERVICES ARE SCAMS! Here is a quote from the Los Angeles County Assessor's website: "The office of the assessor in L.A. County is conducting a blanket review of homes purchased between July 2004 and June 2007, with an eye toward reducing assessed values when appropriate. The assessor's website notes that homeowners are also being solicited by private firms (like those mentioned here) offering to file appeals: "Solicitations of this type may not be illegal, but property owners should be aware that the Assessor’s Office provides a simple filing process for a reduction in their property taxes at no charge."

[Inka Sol]

Scam? It is not a scam. Its a service. They are providing a service (product) for a fee. No theft is occurring. I can mow my lawn free of charge, its quick and easy. However, I hired a gardener. Is he scamming me?