Time to Challenge Assessed Home Values in ABQ

Bernalillo County Assessor Karen Montoya will mail out Notice of Valuations for Real Property and Mobile Homes on Thursday, March 1, 2012.The Assessor’s Office will also begin its annual protest period for Real Property and Mobile Homes on March 1st. Subsequent to the mail out of the Notices of Values, property owners will have the opportunity to file a valuation protest within 30 days of the actual date of mailing.




How do you know if you should file a protest? I can check for you or you can estimate based on market value trends. The statistics for yearend show that the values went down about 6% last year. It varies by area but that is a rule of thumb you can use to compare last year's assessment with the one you get for 2011.



If you want me to help you decide give me a call and I will do a free market analysis for you. Also, you can go to my website and click on Market Snapshot to see what the values were for similar homes sold in 2011. If you decide to protest, I can provide you with three comparable homes that have sold which you will need for the protest. If that doesn't work, a good friend of mine is an attorney who specializes in protests. Give me a call and let me know how I can help you save money on taxes.

TAX LIGHTENING HEATS UP

So after two District Court judges ruled that the "tax lightening" regulation was unconstitutional, now they have apparently been intimidated by the Governor who wants a constitutional amendment proposition to make it legal. One of the judges is sending it to the Court of Appeals after saying she wouldn't to get a confirming opinion. In the meantime, I guess she is not going to rollback taxes in 2010 for those who have bought in the County of Bernalillo since 2002. And her attorney just quit in the light of 2000 plus filed appeals by these same taxpayers.

LIGHTS OUT FOR TAX LIGHTENING

This just in: Bernalillo County Tax Assessor plans to roll back property values for homes sold since 2002 to save tax payers thousands of dollars in the future. My friend, Stephanie Dzur, got this ball rolling when she brought a lawsuit against the Assessor claiming that increasing taxes of buyers with no limits versus 3% annual increase limits on others was unconstitutional. She won and then another taxpayer won with a different judge and just as Stephanie, an attorney, is collecting hundreds of taxpayers to file another lawsuit, the Assessor acts. Apparently, she doesn't want all those lawsuits and does see that the law is unlawful so is reversing it. It remains to be seen what the State will do and my other friend, Rick Homans who heads up the State's Tax and Revenue Dept. seems to be processing all this. The implications of the loss of revenue in the county and for the State is significant so this is a real catch-22 situation. Way to go, Stephanie.

Property Tax Lightning, Another Legal Victory!!

GREAT NEWS! A second district court judge, Judge Nan Nash, just ruled that our property tax law is unconstitutional - see attached from Stephanie Dzur for details ...

Hi Mark:

I'm attaching a copy of the judicial decision in Ying Wang's case. I am really excited for Ying Wang in winning his case on appeal in District Court! He is to be congratulated in his victory considering he represented himself in his protest and on appeal. Not an easy feat for someone without a legal background.
The opinion by Judge Nan Nash follows the same reasoning as the earlier decision in my case, Dzur v. Montoya. The New Mexico Constitution requires the legislature to limit the annual increases in the valuation of residential property. The Constitution specifically allows the legislature to treat people differently in applying the limitation as long as the different treatment is based upon owner-occupancy, age or income.

In Ying's case the Court held that the New Mexico Constitution is violated by assessing a class of taxpayers differently (denying them the valuation limitation) because of when they bought their property. The Constitution requires taxpayers to be treated equally with only three permissible exceptions: owner-occupancy, age or income.

Clinton Marrs and I are representing taxpayers who have been hit by the so-called Tax Lightning statute in 2009 and earlier years. The property tax bills go out November 1st, and we have just a very short time after that to file complaints on behalf of taxpayers. I am available to answer questions! So please do not hesitate to call.

Stephanie Dzur, Attorney
3916 Juan Tabo Pl. NE, Suite 25
Albuquerque, NM 87111
505-730-5295
sdzur1@gmail.com

TAX LIGHTNING STRUCK DOWN

Hurray for my good friend, Stephanie Dzur, who took on the Tax Assessor and won!! She protested the "tax lightning" regulation as unconstitutional. The judge agreed that bumping up the property taxes on properties when a purchase occurs is not fair. For other homeowners, taxes can only go up 3% a year, but for buyers the increase is unlimited. I listed a property yesterday where the taxes were $700 when he bought the home two years ago. The increase was $2200 per year a more than threefold increase which amounted to almost $250 per month. He's selling the house and moving out of State. Shame, as we say in Africa! For more information, check out this link: http://noproposition13innm.blogspot.com/

QUESTION ON CHALLENGING TAXES

Thank you for the question on my post on the tax increases. The question was if a home was purchased in 2008 and taxes have increased, what recourse does one have. I asked Stephanie Dzur, Esq, who is the expert on this and here is her reply:

As you know, you can challenge the value assessed as being excessive, if it is indeed higher than comparable sales; or, challenge the tax scheme itself which some local attorneys believe violates the New Mexico Constitution. This challenge is to the fact that residential property is assessed in a discriminatory manner treating new and old home owners differently. They are probably going to bring a declaratory judgment action this year in Bernalillo County District Court on behalf of taxpayers who closed on their homes in 2008. If such is the case, info will be provided to people like Judy who are blogging about the real estate market.

A taxpayer can EITHER bring a protest or a challenge in District Court, but not both. The protest deadline is a very short time after you receive your assessment. In Bernco I believe the deadline is May 1st. The deadline for filing in District Court is January of 2010. Does this help?

Lightning Tax About to Be Eliminated

Initiated by my good friend, Stephanie Dzur who lead a formal challenge to the property tax increase on her home, the State Legislature has passed on the the State Senate two bills to curb the lightning tax. One will limit the tax increase to 20% for buyers of homes compared to the unlimited tax increase they are hit with now. And the second bill requires that title companies and realtors disclose the possibility of the tax increase. Well, hey I was doing that already and lost a sale to a CA buyer just last month because of it. This is fair legislation and a step in the right direction.

Tax Hikes for New Homeowners in ABQ

New homeowners are being hit with a tax increase that is angering many who feel it is unfair. Until a couple of years ago, the assessor did not have access to the purchase price of a home. Their estimates of assessed value were in many cases, way off base. Now that NM is a disclosure state, the title company has to tell the assessor what the home sold for. This is a problem if the price is significantly greater than the value assumed by the assessor. Also, there is a 3% cap on rate increases UNLESS the home is sold, in which case all bets are off. This then is the issue with many saying that such an unpredictable and uncontrolled rate hike is unfair and will discourage people from moving here. There will be more on this issue as politicians step in to find more acceptable solutions.