By: Diane Benjamin
It gets harder and harder to see any fairness in how properties are assessed for property tax purposes. If some properties are under assessed, your bills are higher to compensate. Every property owner should protest if their assessment isn’t right.
Evidently we need a way to protest the assessment of other people’s property. It isn’t fair some aren’t paying enough. Everybody pays more because some don’t pay enough.
I’ve printed numerous examples over the years, this one recently: https://blnnews.com/2019/10/10/denied-foia-forced-this-story/
Normal was thinking of buying a house on E Vernon for $400,000 when it was appraised for tax purposes at a little over $200,000. So far it hasn’t appeared on an agenda.
Here is one to add to the list:
The U-Lock-It Mini Storage in Bloomington recently sold. The PIN # is 21-16-376-009.
The County records show the seller was DZR ENTERPRISES LLC.
https://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/parcel/view/2116376009/2018#SalesHistory1
The buyer paid $4,200,000 on 9/30/19 – RED DOT STORAGE 164 LLC
The assessed value for DZR was $613,876, multiply that by 3 to get the value assigned by the tax assessor: $1,841,628. Obviously the sale price was more than twice what the assessor assigned.
Unit 5 was the big loser. If the property had been assessed closer to the actual value, Unit 5 would have collected at least double the $33,100.01 they received for 2018.
The on-line tax history goes back to 2003. The assessed value has increased over the years, just not enough to represent the real value.
Assessing properties is totally subjective. The only accurate assessment is what the property sells for. The sale should trigger a new assessed value, but since taxes are paid for the previous year the sale won’t fully be recognized until 2020 taxes are paid in 2021.
Since you can only protest your assessment, don’t miss the opportunity next year. Watch sales in your neighborhood. If values are dropping your’s has too.
Anyone can file an appeal on ANY property. You don’t have to own it. Saw it done when I was a member of the Assessment Review Board. Also, the assessors will not “chase sales”. The property you mentioned (Red Dot) will probably never be assessed close to the price paid for it. The State Board of Review always emphasizes “equity” over sale price. In other words, it will be assessed at the average of similar properties.
Thanks!
Your logic is a little flawed in the example. The sales price includes the value of the business in addition to the value of the property and structures. I agree some properties are not assessed properly. I think this is what the first poster was saying as well.