We just got our property tax bill in the mail. $400 for the year. I'm not complaining.

while im sure you think you are correct ,but no two properties are the same , just be cause you found someone with more money than they know what to do with doesn't mean your neighbor will , and if no one in the immediate area has sold their house . it does not matter what your neghbors house sold for if you have several offers lower , the property is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. The accessors cant prove the value of a home ,its an estimate or in their opinion . by what you say if your neighbor has 2 acre lot wit 36000 sq foot house and it sells for 500,000 and you have 2acre lot 1/4 mile down the road with a 36000 sq ft home and yours was built in the 40's they have the same value? i think not. but its ok , if don't try youll never win . and you can win. you just have to know how to play the game. by the way i live in West Va. and the Accessor is not allowed on my property with out my permission.

When I first got married I rented a beach house in Ocean Beach, San Diego area. They ended up putting it up for sale, $160k. Thought about buying it but figured I could not afford it, I was probably wrong on the mortgage but my credit back then was horrible. Zillowed it recently, over $1.6 million taxes thought aren't bad. About $5200/yr, a the new buyer would get it in the shorts. Of course they did one of those California updates on it and it's about three times the size, with a second floor now, than it was when I was renting it.

Then they can SUE you for them catching the dreaded virus!

They are allowed on your property here, and can look in your windows. I just got mine raised 50%, they base it on sales in the neighborhood. We have tons of rich liberals spending millions around here, one dumbell bought 3 houses knocked them down, and spent 10 million on new. They can come inside if you file a protest, I protested based on sellable square footage, it has to meet current code to be sellable, nothing is grandfathered in. I told the assesor, come on down and bring a check, I will move, he said sorry, I can't all indoor inspections suspended over covid, I said good then no tax increase until we settle this? They should have to immediately buy your property for what they assess it at the way I see it. I would move and retire if they bought all my dumps. I tell you one other thing, the hispanic 4 plexs are going to have to be 6-8 plexs after this year, they got slammed worse than we did, some doubled.

i have had similar problems with my house.
my town re assesses every other year. they also want to inspect every house after it has been sold to make sure nothing was done without getting a permit so they can fine the old owner of the property. if you don't let them inspect you will be responsible for any work done without getting a permit. most of the time this is done before you move in so the inspection is rarely refused.
Zillow list my house at 2800 sq ft and estimates it's value at $395K. it's actually 1800 sq ft and according to recent sales it's worth about $250K. i only paid $75K for the place.
i have had to protest the assessment every year for the last 10 years since i bought the place. after the second year i had the assessor give me a copy of his assessment stating my house is only 1800sq ft. now when i protest the assessment i just include a copy of the copy stating my house is 1800sq ft and they re figure my value without even having to talk to anybody.


on another note.
i am sure just as many rich conservatives as rich liberals buy houses, knock them down and build Mc Mansions.

I received a letter one time when they were doing heavy construction near by.

It looked like the city was trying to inspect my house and I later found out it was a contractor for the construction company wanted to cover his butt before he started blasting.

Make sure it is legitimately the city.
If it is, then see if you have the right to decide to let them in or not. (Don't take the cities word for it though)
Then decide if it is worth letting them in or not if you have a choice.

I had a inspector come by one day. He quoted my square footage and asked if I had remodeled the basement to living space or not. I said no, inspection over, he never left the sidewalk.

They tax on livable square footage here and that was all he needed to know.

Best of luck.

You could avoid all that mess by moving to some place like where I live. Housing values have been dropping for the last few years, my real estate taxes actually wend down last year. The accessor's office isn't in a real big hurry to re-evaluate taxes here these days. The only time the taxes has gone up was when some one bought a house and the price was higher then the appraised taxes, and that isn't happening very often.
The sad part of the whole deal is, I'm not sure I can get what I paid for my house 18 years ago, if I wanted to sell it right now. Fortunately, I'm prepared to live here until they drag my dead butt out, I really won't care what my kids get out of the place. Gene

100K upgrade in California. What did you get for that, new downspouts. Lol.

There FIXED for ya...

They would tax me for the addition.

more like lessen the tax due to insufficient value, lol

.... ORE decreased value due to age, extreme shrinkage and mold and mildew damage due to lack of usage !

hang a sign on the door that says ACTIVE COVID QUARANTINE IN EFFECT. come back in 14 days. In 14 days hang another sign up that says, STILL ACTIVE FOR COVID, SH-- won't go away

14 more days change it to WE THINK IT'S OK NOW

I've lived in the country 33 yrs,never had a tax assessor that requested inside inspection,just outside property and residence.

.

WITCH other countryS have you lived in THE OTHER 50 plus years ?

Thats when you get their version of the girls PE teacher from Porkies at the door.

https://youtu.be/7XhRX3n85bU