This article was written by Carolyn Bastick
Appealing the value of your home
If you own a home, in November you received your proposed levies and taxes statement from Hennepin County. You may have been noticing a steady increase in the estimated market value of your home (and most of us have here on the Northside), which impacts how much you pay in property taxes.
Following up on our article in the June 2018 issue of Camden Community News, you have a right to appeal your home’s market value. Now is a great time to start preparing for your application so you can be ready to move quickly when you receive your Valuation Notice from the City in March.
Gather your supporting information
For the appeal application form you will need:
- A list of any home improvements you have made, plus costs.
- The valuation you believe should be placed on your home.
- Supporting information that bolsters your case, such as, but not limited to:
- The market value and other details of yours and similar properties in your neighborhood. You can get an enormous amount of information from the City of Minneapolis website (gov/propertyinfo/propertyinfo_index) and the Hennepin County property tax pages (hennepin.us/residents/property/property-taxes). The City assessors place value on such things as more than one bathroom, a double garage, finished basement, updated kitchen.
- Compile actual and pending sales data to find out what a similar property is selling for in your area. Ask a realtor to run a comparative market analysis which shows home sales in the blocks surrounding your home. Values can vary block-to-block, even within the same neighborhood.
- If you do not have a recent appraisal, consider having one done (although they are not cheap). Depending upon the results, this may actually lead to you deciding not to appeal, or, conversely, it could be a valuable piece of evidence that will support your case.
- Are you prepared to take your case before the Minneapolis Board of Appeal and Equalization should you disagree with the assessor’s re-evaluation of your home (this is a yes/no question that has to be answered)?
Watch for your Valuation Notice
The deadlines for filing an appeal are communicated on the reverse side of the City’s Valuation Notice and they vary slightly from year-to-year. This document should arrive in March and will have a tight deadline within which to submit the application to appeal your home’s value. So don’t delay!