Tax reassessment

[Boyd]

I recently got a letter from the town saying they will be reassessing all properties as the result of a mandate from Atlantic County and the NJ Division of Taxation. Fair enough, I don't have a problem with that.

However the town says they are not using the "normal" method of contracting an outside firm and instead have hired their own part-time employees for the job. They are a bit ambiguous on how the process works though. The letter says "although you do not have to let anyone into your home, it will benefit everyone if the representative is able to obtain accurate data".

So I'm wondering who else has gone through this process recently? Did you let the assessor into your house? If so, what were they looking for? Just basic stuff like how many bathrooms, etc? Or more detail like what kind of appliances, fixtures?

I am very reluctant to let an unknown person "inspect" the inside of my house... I don't like a part-timer hired by the town at a low wage (to avoid using a professional company) looking at all of my possessions. If I don't let them inside, will they assume that the walls are all covered with gold and assess my home at a higher value?

 

[MarkBNJ]

I hope that the part-timers are simply collecting data, i.e. how many floors, how many rooms, frontage, etc. If that's all they do, and the data is then analyzed by someone expert in the local market, then you might get a fair result.

On the other hand, this is local government, so there is no chance of a fair result.

Last time we had an assessment was for a refinance. A private contractor came and walked through, took notes. I hated it because we had to clean the day before so we could pretend to the stranger that we always live that way.

 

[Jode Hillman]

Boyd, Gloucester county did the same thing about 2 years ago. The assesor showed up and asked if he could come in, or if he should come back another time. I let him in and it took all of about 5 minutes. He basically wanted to verify that the info on the property tax form was accurate (ie no recent bedroom or bathroom additions. ) He did not look at type of fixtures appliances etc. Just verified the big stuff. My assesment went up considerable as it was 12 years since my town had been assesed. Fortunatley my taxes only went up about $120 because they lower the tax rate per thousand to fall in line with the higher assesed values.

My neighbor conteste his assesment and the county back off by several thousand. When he got his tax bill it actually went down( by a few dollars) because of the lower tax rate .

 

[46er]

So I'm wondering who else has gone through this process recently? Did you let the assessor into your house? If so, what were they looking for? Just basic stuff like how many bathrooms, etc? Or more detail like what kind of appliances, fixtures?

I am very reluctant to let an unknown person "inspect" the inside of my house... I don't like a part-timer hired by the town at a low wage (to avoid using a professional company) looking at all of my possessions. If I don't let them inside, will they assume that the walls are all covered with gold and assess my home at a higher value?

Just went through it. I would not be overly concerned. The person doing the assessment did not even ask to enter our home, just a couple of questions. If it took 5 minutes it was a lot. They have enough info to know if any building permits were issued and any major work has been done since the last assessment, unless it was done illegally

We saw a significant drop in the assessment In most cases, what you pay in taxes will remain pretty much the same as the rates are also adjusted. They are required by law to do the reassessments to bring them in line with real value numbers.

Once you get it, that's the time to put in the pool and add the 2000 sq ft addition

 

[Boyd]

Thanks all. Will just see how it goes and hope for the best.