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Thu 13 Jan, 2005 03:01 pm
I requested an abatement form from my city's Board of Assessors as they have grossly overstated the market value of my condo. When they sent the form they included a sheet that seems to give them authority (if I sign) to take an additional three months to review my application for abatement.
On the sheet it states there is a section of the General Laws of Massachusetts to prevent action by the Board on your application unless action is taken within three months from the date of the filing of the application. A provision of this same law does allow the Assessors to act on an application beyond the three month period with WRITTEN CONSENT by the taxpayer. In order to prevent as much inconvenience to the TAXPAYER as possible, we are attaching a copy of the consent agreement so that, if you wish, it may be singed and filed by you at the time of the filing of the application.
Failure to consent to this extension would mean that no action can be taken by the Assessors after the three months from the filing date has passed.
In accordance with the provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 59, Section 64, I/we hereby consent to an additional three months beyond the three months provided by application for the abatement of the tax for the fiscal year 2004/2005, on my/our real estate located atÂ…..
Now my question is - is there some benefit to me to actually give the assessors an extra 3 months? Or are they just trying to get more time as they anticipate lots of these abatements to be filed. Obviously for me the quicker they determine this, the better as my taxes will fall. But will I have any repercussions if I do not sign this - for example they cannot get to it so they keep the value as is and then I have to pursue this further through the Appellate Tax Board?
Under Chapter 59, Section 64 of the M.G.L. the town assessor has 90 days (3 months) to make a determination to either abate your taxes or deny your request. If they don't act within that 90 day period the law states that the application is automatically considered denied.
If the application is denied then your recourse is to appeal to the County Commissioners and await the outcome of their process.
The possible benefit to signing might be that if the local assessor is busy they may still get to your application within the 6 month period and approve your request. If that happens it would be faster than waiting for the County Comm. to act.
On the downside, you are also giving the local assessor an additional 3 months and at the end of which they could still deny your application and you'd have lost 3 months with the County.
It looks like a crapshoot either way. I guess I would look and see how often the local assessor
goes in favor of the taxpayer. If it's a high rate then your odds of getting the abatement may make taking the chance worth it.
Thanks fishin sounds like I could be screwed either way. I really wish that I could do that at my job. I work in a highly regulated industry. Basically most of my reports have to filed within a 45 or 60 day deadline. I wish I could tell them if I don’t get to within the deadline then too bad. What the hell sort of job is that?
The one thing is it is definitely true that my property is grossly overstated. I live in a condo community. The highest priced condo sold for just under $400,000 and the least expensive condo priced for the low $300,000s in the year in which the assessor is using. My condo is mid-ranged. They assessed my condo for almost $450,000. As unbiased as I can be, I would guess my condo would be valued at about $350,000. I also had my condo re-appraised for refinancing a few years ago and the appraised it at $275,000. And the prior assessed value for tax purposes prior was in the mid $200,000 range. If I could sell my condo for $400,000 (let alone $450,000) I would on the spot. And prior to that we did put the condo on the market for $350,000 for several months with only a couple of offers significantly below that amount so I cannot see that I am being unreasonable.
Real Estate assesments are a tricky thing in MA now. Because the towns are now limited in how much they can raise their tax increments some have been finding other ways to increase net tax revenues.
If the town taxes you at 3% of your assessed value and can only raise the rate by .5% a year they're working tax revenue is constrained. Instead of raising the tax rates (which they can't raise by much by law) they try to raise the assessed value and that gets them the same tax revenue as raising to a higher rate on the lower value.
If you have the numbers to work with based on sales in your complex they'd be hard pressed to deny your application. I think some towns are just setting the higher values and hope that most people will just pay and not question anything.
Good luck!
The ironic thing was a couple days after I received the new tax bill, the Boston Globe had an article about my city lowering their tax rate and how great the mayor was for being able to do that. They never explained that the reason he could was because all the homes in the city doubled in tax assessed value, thus in effect increasing everyone’s taxes dollar wise. So in your humble opinion should I wait out the extra 3 months? To me it seems obvious with the current sales that it will go down.
I find out what the success rate in with the town assessor before I'd make any decision. If it's over 50% I'd sign the 3 month extension and play the odds.
Thanks again fishin - I am I complete moron when it comes to this stuff - how do I find out that information?
Your town's tax assessor should have some sort of annual report that lists how many people applied for abatements last year and how many were approved/denied. My town lists that sort of stuff in the town's annual report.
Check your town's WWW site or go to the town offices and ask for a copy.
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