In addition to your basic property taxes, if your property tax bill seems unusually high especially during this housing crisis you may have a Special and/or Direct Assessment on your home. Depending on the area your home is located, there may be costs necessary to pay off any voter-approved general obligation bonds or other indebtedness, special assessments, or direct levies. For example, a Direct Assessment may be applied to your home if voters decide to establish a sewage system in a neighborhood that is older where most of the residences use septic tanks. The direct assessment is used to cover the cost of this improvement to the neighborhood.
Most of the time, a direct assessment is added on to your property tax bill over years so the taxpayers are not inundated by the special assessment to pay for the improvement. Special and Direct Assessments have a reason they are added on to your basic assessment such as an improvement to a community and when that new improvement has been paid for the special or direct assessment is complete and will no longer be on your property tax bill. Generally, this type of debt is usually fraction of a percent increase in your existing property tax rate.
Direct assessments are applied on the property tax bill by the county tax collector on behalf of the local levying agency or district, not on behalf of the assessor, auditor-controller, and/or the county tax collector divisions. Remember, that Special and Direct Assessments are based on voter approved indebtedness so if there is any dispute it has nothing to do with the Assessor. For more information, or if you disagree with a special assessment against your property, you must contact the levying district directly. Normally this information is on your property tax bill.
Even if you disagree with your property tax bill, it is not wise to refuse to pay a property tax bill that contains the special or direct assessment, even when the direct levy amount is under review. Keep in mind that even if you disagree with your property tax bill it is always wiser to pay the bill and get refunded later than to have an outstanding tax bill on your property. The processes to delete a delinquent property tax bill and all of the fines, require numerous signatures and documents within the Assessor’s Office and Tax Collector and is pretty a mess. So keep it simple, pay your property tax bill.
About the Author: Valerie Faltas, Property Tax Expert has been involved in all facets of real estate for over ten years including assessments, appraisals, estates and trusts, investing and much more. She is a Certified Property Tax Appraiser, Licensed Residential Appraiser and a member of the International Association of Assessment Officers. As a real estate investor and advisor she is well versed in all aspects of real estate. To contact Valerie Faltas go to her website: www.propertytaxlittleblackbook.com.
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