Beware of Offers to Reassess Home to Lower Property Taxes

A Client recently walked into the Law Offices of Matthew Mullhofer asking for his opinion on a company advertising to reassess his home to lower his property tax.



The company wanted $250.00 to file the application with the county assessor's office. Matthew Mullhofer weighed in on the issue because he had just gone through a similar situation with his property in Orange County.



After researching the procedures for reassessment, Matthew Mullhofer indicated that the advertisement was over priced and that the company was offering to do something that the client could do for himself for free.



These letters or advertisements come from companies called government property tax reassessment, county property tax reassessment, and gov. tax reassessment. These companies seem to be sending out their notices to everyone.



The client asked Matthew Mullhofer, do these companies actually offer some value to the homeowner? When property values are down by double digits, in most areas, it does make sense to petition the county to lower your property taxes. The government says they routinely reappraise peoples homes whether they are asked to or not. However, the value that the government may reassess your property at maybe different from what fare market value is based on sales.



That makes one wonder, what incentive does the county assessors have in lowering homeowners property taxes when the local governments are strapped financially. Matthew Mullhofer had researched the issue and found that the government did have a conflict of interest in promising to reduce property taxes but also begging for state and federal tax increases. The result was to search for experienced companies that would file and process the paper work for a reasonable fee.



What was a reasonable fee, the client asked? No more than $50.00 said Matthew Mullhofer. A company that Matthew Mullhofer used personally called http://californiaproptaxappeal.com/ that he located on the internet, was willing to file the necessary paper work, including current sales comps in the area where the homeowner's house is located , charged $50.00 for the service.



It is true that you can do this on your own but it seems the work involved would be worth the $50.00 spent.



If you have questions regarding home values and tax reassessment, please feel free to contact the Law Offices of Matthew Mullhofer at (714) 827-9955.