Tax assessment official and appraiser at odds

[Ian Smith]

I recently had an appraisal done for refinancing. It came in lower than expected at 123000. The assessment is 146600 so I appealed the assessment. The assessment office says the appraisal is wrong due to only accounting for $10 sf for my additional sf over the comps. They say the appraiser should have used $40. Also the assessment office says the gross rent multiplier was wrong. The appraiser used 77 and the assessment office says it should be 106.6. It's been a week and the appraiser has yet to respond. Does anyone have any insight on this. I'd be happy if either party would move. With this appraisal i have to bring money to the table to refinance. On the other hand i would love to get my taxes down. Also how far below market value should the assessment be?

[Brendon Woirhaye]

The assessment should ideally be the same as the market, but they usually get out of sync.  I have used a third party appraisal to get my county to lower the tax basis on a property (in California, there is a process for that), but it really is up to the assessor and their method.

I would keep after the appraiser to reconcile the points brought up by the assessor, and complain to your lender that the appraiser isn't responsive, but you may be out of luck unless you want to roll the dice on another appraisal.

Good luck.