Taxes, taxes and more taxes

[Marcus Johnson]

So once again I'm looking at the proposed tax assessment of my South Minneapolis Duplex and for 2019 they have gone up once again, but this time 20%.  I've owned the property since 2014 and the taxes have gone up from $2,800 to now a proposed $5,200 for 2019.  The house has been painted per city requirement, a small deck was added in 2015 and the upper unit had $5,000 worth of renovating of a brand new bathroom, new floors and paint.  The lower unit hasn't had anything done to it.  I know the city has Class rates and that's what they base taxes on, a single family home that isn't being rented has lower taxes then a multi-family.  But from my research in the neighborhood, I'm seeing single family homes that are the same size and age with similar features are $2,000 less in taxes.    I've sent my realtor a message to see about getting addresses of Duplexes that have sold in the past two years and to compare their tax assessments for 2019.   I'm thinking about appealing this because it seems like every year Minneapolis is coming after us investors.    

[Tim Swierczek]

@Marcus Johnson  I have some expierence with this.  I sued Ramsey County for property taxes on a commercial building I owned.  The County ended up setteling with me for a rather large sum, but in realiity it was probably half of what they overcharged me.  

I learned several things, but what I learned that would help you the most in this case is that you must focus you efforts on the property valuation and not how much you pay.  The amount you pay is a political issue based on the tax rate and occupancy, they don't care.  Try to show you should be valued like 4537 , 4541, 4528.  Good Luck.  If you don't get resloution I can connect you with an attorney that will take the case on contingency.  So you pay nothing and the attorney gets 1/3 of the recovery.  Be warned it takes 3-5 years to get paid from the start of your lawsuit, but you do not need to own the property anylonger to recover.