mismatch between tax records and actual house

[Anonymous]

We recently bought an older (1920s with updates) home that was listed as having 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The tax records list our property as having an undetermined number of bedrooms (no data) and 2.5 bathrooms. Should I try to have the records updated or just leave it and enjoy having a lower appraised value for tax assessment? Should I care for resale purposes? We didn't care too much, and were one of multiple offers as it's in a popular area...I don't think it's the case of having an unpermitted addition as there are permits showing for additions/renovations since the 1980s, so if the unpermitted work was done, it was probably done nearly 40 years ago....

[Anonymous]

Let it be. No good can come from reassessing by the city.

If you do a refinance at some point down the road, you'll have a privately hired inspector examine the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let it be. No good can come from reassessing by the city.

If you do a refinance at some point down the road, you'll have a privately hired inspector examine the house.

This. We don't plan to sell so why pay more taxes.

[Anonymous]

We did work 7 years ago in DC with permits. Our records have not changed.

In DC your tax assessment is mostly based off of sales price - as opposed to # of rooms bedrooms.

[Anonymous]

We built a house in arlington. The assessment is wrong on bedrooms and baths - I'm not sure why. They have all of the plans on file with the county. I was sweating what the assessment would be and it came at least 200k low. I won't be correcting their mistake.

[Anonymous]

what about a mismatch on square footage in the tax records and actual square footage? would that be worth correcting? I see lots of posts on this board complaining about houses being listed as 3000 square feet when the tax records have them at 2000 square feet (although some of that is people claiming their below ground basements etc.)

[Anonymous]

We moved recently and did a gut renovation (properly permitted). Almost doubled the square footage of the house, added a bedroom and a garage, etc. When this year's assessment came, it was the same as it was before the renovation. Let sleeping dogs lie, and hope they sleep for a long time.

[Anonymous]

I would check the permits. If the permits are correct it can take a tax cycle to catch up.

Your inspector should have checked the tax record against what he was seeing and flagged it as an issue if they did not match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would check the permits. If the permits are correct it can take a tax cycle to catch up.

Your inspector should have checked the tax record against what he was seeing and flagged it as an issue if they did not match.

I've had two inspections and the inspectors never looked at permits or tax records. The appraiser for our bank loan did do that...

[Anonymous]

Ignore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what about a mismatch on square footage in the tax records and actual square footage? would that be worth correcting? I see lots of posts on this board complaining about houses being listed as 3000 square feet when the tax records have them at 2000 square feet (although some of that is people claiming their below ground basements etc.)

Do you want to pay more in taxes just because? Donald Trump is President and it is not cool to pay taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what about a mismatch on square footage in the tax records and actual square footage? would that be worth correcting? I see lots of posts on this board complaining about houses being listed as 3000 square feet when the tax records have them at 2000 square feet (although some of that is people claiming their below ground basements etc.)

Are you kidding me? Builders used to file papers stating that the work they were doing was valued at virtually nothing just so they could fool the tax man.
Our neighbors two story addition never registered with moco - even though they inspected it. Their taxes have been half of what they should be for 10 years now.

Our house was mischaracterized the other way - as much bigger and more luxurious than it is (it's an old disaster) because the stupid builder who built our little addition had the county inspecyofcfo thst because he thought it would get him more business. Something like the little crap addition I built on this house was so great the county appraised it for 100k extra I'm so great!

It literally took us 10 years and thousands of dollars (for an advocate who actually did nothing for us but we hired her because we weren't getting anywhere) to fix it and we weee paying an extra 2k in property taxes a year all that time.

Don't be an idiot - do not call the tax/appraisal people.

It is a shame that montgomery county md has under appraised so many houses as they could have a lot more revenue if they fixed it - but even when they come out and inspect (like my neighbors house) they get it wrong so leave it alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved recently and did a gut renovation (properly permitted). Almost doubled the square footage of the house, added a bedroom and a garage, etc. When this year's assessment came, it was the same as it was before the renovation. Let sleeping dogs lie, and hope they sleep for a long time.

This happens all the time. Even if it's pointed out they don't fix it.
Government...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently bought an older (1920s with updates) home that was listed as having 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The tax records list our property as having an undetermined number of bedrooms (no data) and 2.5 bathrooms. Should I try to have the records updated or just leave it and enjoy having a lower appraised value for tax assessment? Should I care for resale purposes? We didn't care too much, and were one of multiple offers as it's in a popular area...I don't think it's the case of having an unpermitted addition as there are permits showing for additions/renovations since the 1980s, so if the unpermitted work was done, it was probably done nearly 40 years ago....

Are you on septic?

Very common for septic systems to be for X number of bedrooms but the house actually has X+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would check the permits. If the permits are correct it can take a tax cycle to catch up.

Your inspector should have checked the tax record against what he was seeing and flagged it as an issue if they did not match.

I've had two inspections and the inspectors never looked at permits or tax records. The appraiser for our bank loan did do that...

for a property we have purchased in MD and VA- the inspector checked permits. The one in VA found that extensive work had been done that was not permitted. there were permits for small pieces of the work but not everything.