Allegheny County must complete a full property reassessment for taxing use by 2014, although parts of the county must be reassessed by 2011, a county judge ruled this morning.
In a 33-page opinion and order, Senior Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick laid out a four-year plan for the county to reassess its 540,000 properties.
Citing a lack of information from county officials on setting a realistic timeframe for reassessments, Wettick ordered the reassessment office to split the county into four regions.
The county must complete the first region’s reassessment for taxing use by 2011, the second by 2012, the third by 2013 and the fourth by 2014.
A group of homeowners who sued the county over its 2002 base-year system were seeking an interim assessment to be completed by January, which Wettick denied.
The state Supreme Court ruled in April that the county’s system — which taxes properties at their 2002 values — is so inaccurate it violates the state constitution.
Base-year opponents say taxing homes on what they once were worth creates inequity. Homes in declining neighborhoods become overvalued, and homes in booming neighborhoods are undervalued.
Thoughts? I can only see this being bad for homeowners. Being a first time home owner what can we expect minus higher taxes on the property?
You can look forward to a lot of hassles and delays if you want to appeal the value they come up with. There were 180,000 appeals of the 2002 values (out of 550,000 properties) and that ended up costing the county $30 million.
Also, if the courts think locking values at 2002 is inaccurate and unconstitutional for Allegheny County, what does this mean for other counties that use more recent “base years” or haven’t reassessed since the 1970s? Seems like every other county is currently violating the state consitution with this ruling.
The 2002 reassessment caused my monthly mortgage payment to increase by $250!!! They claimed my $50k house (which needed $$$ in repairs) and nearly useless swamp lot was worth some outrageous amount and ultimately forced us into bankruptcy.
This is going to suck for all of us who purchased houses in the last few years. Our house is assessed at $85,800, but we just bought this year for $145,000.
well that’s the thing… if you bought it at that, then it must have been appraised somewhere around there… so then it begs the question as to why you would’nt expect to pay that amount of taxes? that is one of the issues with reassessment, they can get a house and reassess 2 months after a purchase or wait 2 years… but since it’s not tied to new home ownership, sometimes people make out while others dont.
i expect to pay what i bought my house for… if they want to reassess higher, they are going to have to fight me for it.
anyone can simply contend their assessment… you just show local comparibles, question the sq footage of livable space and go on tape and officially question it… they will lower your assessment.
Well, we purchased our house in White Oak in 2001 for $75k it came with 2 completely useless lots directly next to it. The house wasnt really worth $75k, but at the time it was the only thing on the market in our price range. A short time later, everything went wrong, roof leaking, hot water tank, A/C, basement flooding, mold issues… you name it and it went wrong. Then the reassessment went into effect.
The county claimed the house was worth $78k, even needing all the repairs. They said the small lot next to the house was worth $18k because the corner of my $200 aluminum shed was on it. They stated that the lot was occupied by a structure so it was valued higher. WTF? Then they claimed the 3rd small lot was worth like $11k or something. Meanwhile I couldnt even cut the grass because the lawn mower would get stuck in the swamp.
Our mortgage went from $600 / month to $850! We filed an appeal and showed up at the hearing with an appraisal of $22k for the house and $5k for both lots… but we lost.
The house wasnt worth dumping anymore time or money into, so our only option was bankruptcy.
well that sucks… maybe the 22k was a little low? I know people that fought off assessments but only dropped say 30k or so on a $200+ home… i think that might have been a pretty big stretch, 78 to 22? being that you bought it for 75k it’s hard to claim it worth 22k right?
I’ve been telling everyone I work with to expect to eventually be assesed for what you have paid for the house.
We felt the 2002 assesment pretty good. Between that and local school taxes going up (Did anyone else realize that Shaler School Tax Millage Rate is higher than any other school tax to the north of PGH?) are taxes went up almost 1800, almost doubling our taxes.
It sucked and was not at all what we budgeted for, but we got through it…
Were you getting a check from the county, local school district and municipality prior to the reassessment? A quick glance at the millage numbers on the Allegheny County Treasurer’s website would put total taxes for a property assessed at $107,000 in White Oak at $2734.87/year total for school, municipality and county combined.
That used to be Deer lakes claim to fame. In fact, i think at one time they were the highest in Allegheny county until Wilkensburg passed them up. Now Shaler wears the crown eh? That’s a shame, my 8 5Y.O. MIL lives in shaler and the taxes are really high on her little house. Would still love to see the hideous property tax replaced by a consumption tax. Imagine all the money that could be saved if all these costs associated with the property tax are eliminated(reassessments, court fights, appeals, etc). As long as there are property taxes, no one truly owns their property, since they have to pay the government yearly “rent”, or it will be taken from them.
As to matt94Z’s $300 increase due to reassessment, my guess is that the new rate resulted in a large escrow shortage. So if his taxes went up, say $1800/yr($150/month), the mortgage company would raise his payment approx $300/month to make up the first year shortage in his escrow account due to the higher tax rate. Those number are guesstimates, and Foz can chime in if i am way off here, but i think i am close to what would be a common occursnce with any tax increase. Most mortgage holders require a pretty big cushion in the escrow account, which results in lots of shortages. That is one reason why i do not have escrow and pay my own taxes. That also allows me to write the huge check to the school district every Sept and get myself all pissed off.
I really have no idea… I think Blackbelt might be right. I believe after several years it could have went back down some, but either way the house just wasnt worth dumpung anything else into.
You’ve got it right one Blackbelt, and that escrow shortage got us the same way jacking out mortgage 200+ in the same way. There’s not only Insurance (averages from 450-550/yr = 37.5-45.84 /mo) but there was probably also some PMI in there as well…
And I may be wrong, someone else told me that Deer Lakes was up there… I’d look it up, but hate to see my own!
