The Florida Homeowner’s Guide to Reducing Property Taxes

An easy Step by Step process for the Florida homeowner wishing to appeal their property taxes.

PRIORITY ORDERING

Since this Guide will not be available for a few more days, we are currently creating a priority list of those who wish to purchase book now. WE WILL NOT ASK YOU FOR A CREDIT CARD NUMBER UNTIL THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD.

Also, anyone on the priority ordering list will automatically receive a $5.00 off coupon - making the cost of the book only $24.95.

To be placed on the Priority Ordering List for

The Florida Homeowner’s Guide to Reducing Property Taxes - An easy Step by Step process for the Florida homeowner wishing to appeal their property taxes.

Just fill out this short form and you will be placed on the list!

Introduction

Nineteen years ago, I graduated law school with a sense of invincibility and the feeling that I am ready for any legal issue thrown my way. Passing the Florida Bar, one of the most difficult bar exams in the country, only increased this Ciceronian feeling.

However, this feeling was about to be put to test. During an interview for what would become my first job as an attorney, the CEO of the company asked what I knew about reducing property taxes. He went on to explain how he owns property all across the United States and is paying too much in property taxes. He was looking for someone in-house to concentrate on the reduction of these taxes.

Even though I felt as if I knew everything, and even though in my head, I kept repeating the mantra “never show weakness, never show weakness”, I admitted that I knew nothing about property taxes but was willing to do whatever it took to learn (ah, the zeal of youth). I assume that I was convincing, because the next day, I was sitting at my new desk with one major task in front of me – learn how to reduce property taxes.

I started buying every book available to me and spent weeks at the local law library scouring the books for cases relating to property taxes. Unfortunately, the amount of self-help books were limited then and those that were on the market were either to difficult to understand, or did not pertain to what I was trying to accomplish. As far as the law books, the cases I found taught me a lot about the law, but nothing about the procedure necessary to appeal. I eventually not only learned how to lower my client’s property taxes, but I was very successful at it. How did I do it? It was a combination of reading whatever materials were available and actually attending the tax appeal hearings. I would even sit in on other cases in order to learn all the tricks of the trade.

After years of successfully practicing law in this field, I realized that the typical homeowner does not have the time or ability to spend the amount of time that I did learning the property tax system. That, coupled with the fact that, according to the National Tax Payer’s Union, 60% of taxable property in the United States is over assessed, led me to the creation of this Guide. You will see from the format, that it is a bit different from the other guides on the market. Most “How-To” books on this topic, spend too much time on the history of property taxes and how property taxes are calculated on a national basis. Those books are creating “filler” in order to justify their high prices.

My feeling is that the price you pay for a book should be justified by the usefulness of the information, not necessarily the number of pages. Also, each state, and sometimes each county, has different methods for applying and appealing property taxes. You will see that appealing your property tax is simple if you follow the steps needed to be successful. No need to waste time with an in depth study of appraisal methods – remember, you are appealing your property taxes, not studying for your property appraiser license!

You will notice that there are no Chapters in this book, only Steps. Follow these steps and you should be on your way to lowering your property taxes.

Step 1: Understand Your System

First and foremost, the world of property taxes can get very involved. There are many statutes, rules, laws, procedures, terms, formulas and directives to adhere to. However, you can successfully appeal your property taxes with a basic understanding. Of course, the more you know, the more successful you will be, however, for the typical homeowner seeking a reduction, a basic understanding, as stated herein, is sufficient.

What you need to understand can be broken down into 3 areas: concepts, definitions and ways to get information.

CONCEPTS

Below are some basic concepts that you should understand before attempting to appeal your property taxes:

A. You are not appealing your taxes, only the value of your property. The taxes you pay on your property is based upon 2 factors; a) the value of your home and b) the tax rate in your area. The two are multiplied to arrive at your property tax amount. There is no outlet to appeal the amount of your property taxes – only to appeal the value of your home, as determined by the county property appraiser. The tax rates are set by the various districts within each county, as well as the county itself. You will be notified of these district meetings when you receive your Notice of Proposed Taxes (to be discussed later), in the event you wish to attend these tax rate meetings.

B. The value of your home is dictated by your local property appraiser. That’s right, you pay taxes based upon the value that the property appraiser determines is the correct value for your home. You should feel a bit comfortable that the property appraiser must follow a myriad of guidelines when valuing your property. However, as stated in my introduction, and according to the National Tax Payer’s Union, 60% of taxable property in the United States is over assessed. Assessing all the homes in a given county is a daunting task and therefore, mistakes are going to be made. The property appraiser cannot possibly place the correct value of every home in the county for one main reason - there are too many homes! Florida law realizes this, and only requires the property appraiser to visit a home once every 5 years. Yes, that’s correct, the value of your home is determined by the property appraiser who may have never even been to your home.

So how do they determine the value? As mentioned previously, the property appraiser must follow Florida Law, specifically 8 factors prescribed in the Florida Statutes. By following these factors, the property appraiser is able to place a value on your home, that may or may not be correct, however, you WILL be taxed based upon the property appraiser’s determination.

We will discuss how these factors can be used to your advantage later in step 3, when we discuss Building Your Case for an Appeal. However, let’s first take a look at the 8 factors that the property must follow when determining a value of your property:

Step 3: Building Your Case

As stated above, if you are unhappy with your tax amount, in particular, the value of your home, you will only have 25 days from the date of your TRIM Notice to file an appeal. However, there is no sense in filing an appeal if you do not have the evidence needed to appeal your value.

Prior to filing the appeal, you should begin to gather your evidence in order to make a determination whether you have a good case. You can of course, perfect the presentation and format of the evidence at a later time, but it is important to do the initial research as soon as, if not before, you receive your TRIM Notice.

Start Building Your Case Using the Eight Factors

The first thing you want to do is print out the eight factors listed in Florida Statutes Section 193.011, that I mentioned back in Step One. You should review each factor and relate it to your property. When building your case, you have to keep in mind that these are the factors that the property appraiser is required to utilize in determining the value of your home. If you feel as if the property appraiser did not value your home correctly, these are the factors you must breakdown in order to make your case to the Value Adjustment Board. While going through each factor, you are going to make a case as to why YOUR interpretation and utilization of these factors is more correct than those of the property appraiser. Don’t be intimidated – as stated previously, it is virtually impossible for the property appraiser to come up with the proper value 100% of the time.

Let’s start with the first factor, The present cash value of the property, which is the amount a willing purchaser would pay a willing seller, exclusive of reasonable fees and costs of purchase, in cash or the immediate equivalent thereof in a transaction at arm's length;

What you need to do is determine how much your home could sell on the open market today – excluding any sales to relatives and most foreclosures and short sales. This is usually determined by examining recent sales in the property’s neighborhood, or as they are usually known, sales comps.

Sales comps are available from several sources like Realtors, local property appraiser (they will not give you a list, but will allow you to search records), or online at sites like Zillow.com. You usually start out by inputting your address and then a list of sales in your area will appear. However, not all the sales can be used as evidence when determining the value of your home. I have listed some rules that you must follow in order to calculate your true value. Follow these 4 rules, and you will be on your way to calculated your determined value on your home.

First Rule

The homes you find MUST be comparable. The more closely the sales comps resemble your property, the better chance you have in having your valuation considered. In other words, you need to find sales of homes that are similar in size, location and style. You cannot compare your 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 3,000 square foot home with a pool, to a 1,900 square foot, 2 bedroom , 1 bath condo. Besides finding properties that are similar in size, location and style, make sure you find properties that have the same quality of construction, the same age, and are in the same condition as your house.

If you utilize comps that are not in your immediate area, you must indicate why the comps you used are not in the same area. For example, there was only 1 sale in your neighborhood, so in order to find the proper market value, you had to search an adjacent neighborhood with comparable home types. Also, when comparing living areas, make sure you tell the Value Adjustment Board where you received your data and/or how the area was calculated.

7. Poor school district

The State of Florida tracks the quality of the public educational facilities in the state. The best place to find this information is at http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/. Most likely, the property appraiser has already taken this information into consideration, however it is best to present any and all evidence to the Value Adjustment Board. If you bring it up, it is incumbent upon the property appraiser to show if and how he considered this information into his valuation.

Sample School Report for selected schools in Broward County, FL (July 2009)

8. Near sexual offenders or predators

The State of Florida requires all qualifying sexual offenders and predators to register in Florida. Also, sexual predators must notify the local police where they live and such notification is available for all to see. Notification by sexual offenders is not mandatory but is authorized. As a result, the State of Florida provides easily accessible information to the public on the whereabouts of these offenders. Visit the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators website at offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/Search.jsp to search for offenders in your area. If you find that there are number of sexual predators and/or offenders in your area, print out a copy of the map and add it to your package. Below is a sample report.

Sample Sexual Offender and Predator Map as of July, 2009.

9. Under major electrical power lines

Provide pictures and a map showing the proximity of your property to the major power lines.

10. Near a nightclub

Provide pictures and a map showing the proximity of your property to the nightclub. Also document the hours and noise levels of the club at various times.

Evidence Regarding Condition

If you are contesting your valuation based upon Factor Number 6 - The condition of your property, you should include a list of any damages and repairs to your property. Make sure you have clear pictures of any existing damages as well as any estimates that you received stating the price to fix the damages. The more estimates you have for each item in disrepair, the better. It will show the Value Adjustment Board that you are not giving them a highball estimate. You should also include receipts for any repairs made to your property in the year prior to the current tax year.

Evidence Regarding the Recent Purchase of Your Property

If you purchased your home during the year prior to the current year, and the purchase price is less than the assessed value, then you can contest the valuation of your home based upon Factor Number 8, or the “net proceeds of the sale of the property, as received by the seller, after deduction of all of the usual and reasonable fees and costs of the sale, including the costs and expenses of financing, and allowance for unconventional or atypical terms of financing arrangements”. In order to do so correctly, you need to add the following to your evidence package:

1. A copy of your Deed

2. A copy of your Closing Statement (or Hud-1)

3. Listing Agreement (if you have one)

4. Receipts for any other reasonable fees and costs associated with the sale.