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In my locale, the assessment is pegged to the sale price, so if you buy a house for $X, the assessed value becomes $X. The city assessor also inspects the house
by analog31 5y ago
In my locale, the assessment is pegged to the sale price, so if you buy a house for $X, the assessed value becomes $X. The city assessor also inspects the house shortly after the sale. In an area with a lot of turnover, the assessments tend to be fairly accurate. A major renovation (requiring a permit) will result in a re-assessment.
In subsequent years, they're supposed to apply a formula, but of course "drift" can occur. And then there's an appeal process.
- aidenn0 5y ago> A major renovation (requiring a permit) will result in a re-assessment. Doesn't this just incentivize people to not pull permits on major work? In California contractors often try to talk you out of getting a permit because it's more of a hassle for them, so clearly the contractors aren't liable for doing unpermitted work...
- analog31 5y agoIt does, but it's usually the contractor who pulls the permit for you. I suspect enforcement is enough of a deterrent, but who knows. As I understand it, the penalty is that you get to rip out whatever was built without a permit. For DIY'ers, there's actually a nice program... once you pull a permit, you get to talk with the code inspectors during their office hours, and they will walk you through everything you need to do in order to meet code. A friend of mine built an entire addition this way. There's no way to hack-proof any taxation mechanism.
- aidenn0 5y agoThat's really nice. Here they just show up after the fact, tell you the first thing they find wrong and then leave. If it's not to code, it can take many visits to get a full list of issues.