I'm looking into contesting the valuation change of my property in Over The Rhine. My taxes went from $600 last year to $4,889.38 this year. We have a tax abated property. They have my value almost split between the land and the home. $184,470 for the land and $200,980 for the home. They said that the tax abatement only covers the structure and not the land. I called the Treasurer's office and after being bounced around for about an hour to different people they told me that I could contest it. They said since it's been sent to the state that there is very little chance for me to win. Has anyone had experience contesting theirs?

 

Also I'm looking for comps of land sold in the Washington Park area. We have a double lot, but there is geothermal in the additional lot so it cannot be developed. I would think this would lower the value of the lot.

 

Any help would be great. Thanks

If they didn't point you to it already: http://www.hcauditor.org/bor.asp

 

I have no idea what "sent to the state" means, but you're supposed to have till end of March to file the forms to contest.

 

I think pretty much everyone in OTR has noticed their land values increase significantly. For example my two properties a couple blocks north of washington park are now both valued at about $65K (land), increasing from about $10K before. That's a significant increase, but it would be hard to disagree with. I really don't know if the geothermal would be considered to affect the value. I mean, you _could_ sell it, and someone _could_ build on it, but it would just wreck your geothermal.

 

I'd listen to others with more direct experience, but in general I'd expect that arguments about land value would be harder to make, compared to the improvements. Since they can't really play games with the land value, I'd be surprised if they didn't have data on sales to back up their appraisals. But you'll be looking at your particular case a lot harder than their more generalized analysis.

 

Life in OTR has changed, and looks like the auditor has finally figured that out.

It is pretty easy to file an appeal and fortunately, from my personal experience. Hamilton County is one of the more reasonable counties (Montgomery is one of the worst) to appeal taxes. I would recommend you complete the form with what you feel the valuation should be or what you want it to be now. It needs to be filed no later than March 31 so don't miss that deadline. You can provide supporting evidence later up until your hearing.

 

Generally, you will probably want an appraisal, especially since you are dealing with land prices. An appraisal should cost a few hundred dollars. You will want to tell the appraiser the purpose of the appraisal so he knows to value things on the low side.

 

Hamilton County uses a computer program to come up with its values so it is very much a blunt instrument. Therefore, a specific appraisal will garner much more weight than the county auditor would. The biggest challenge is how big of a discount you would ask for and if the school board would get involved. If it is significant enough, they will do their own appraisal. It is typically not as strong as the land owner's appraisal but it is another set of evidence to demonstrate FMV.

 

From past experiences, the County often will give some property tax concession even if it is less than what you ask for. IN general 80% of the cases filed in Hamilton County get some reduction (I don't remember where I got that stat from)

 

I do about a dozen of these appeals a year so if you have some specific or mechanical related questions as to filing it, please feel free to PM me.

Maybe you could just run a non-profit through your house and be exempt from property tax?  ;D

I'd listen to others with more direct experience, but in general I'd expect that arguments about land value would be harder to make, compared to the improvements. Since they can't really play games with the land value, I'd be surprised if they didn't have data on sales to back up their appraisals. But you'll be looking at your particular case a lot harder than their more generalized analysis.

 

I looked into this a bit because my land value in CUF jumped up about $5,000 and is just shy of $70,000 now (for a 25x100' lot). I compared to neighbors, and it seems like the country sets a unit cost and applies it to your acreage. Everyone in the immediate area has the same land value per acre.

 

That said, that could be a quick way to spot check and see if something is up with this particular property. Divide the land value by the acreage to get the unit cost (per acre). Do the same thing for all nearby properties and compare. If you're value is $2 million an acre and your neighbors is $1 million, something's up.

Thank you for the for the insight. I'll definitely contest it now.

In a broader sense, I see this as being a good thing.  Land values close to the core of the city should be higher due to desirability, presence of utilities, services, etc.  In the same vein, it should be harder to vacate such property (either literally or by turning it into parking) in order to reduce tax burdens because the city still has to maintain the same amount of infrastructure to serve that property, essentially shifting the burden to others.  Taxing the land in higher proportion than the improvements encourages development and discourages speculation.

 

Of course, simply reallocating the value of improvements into the land in order to water down an abatement is super shady.  If this is being done on a property by property basis that's bad, but if overall values for a whole neighborhood are shifting then that may just be the new normal.

I have seen a lot of appeals in the past. Some with strong evidence and some with rather dubious evidence of support. In general Hamilton county is pretty amenable to giving people who appeal some type of break so it is always worth while to appeal in my opinion, even when your evidence is rather weak.

 

Now in Montgomery County, I would not typically advise this because their Auditor is a bit of a prick, but Hamilton County is generally pretty friendly.