Property Tax increases after purchasing?

[Adam Juodis]

I was talking to my dad, who is very skeptical about buying rental properties, and he warned me to watch out for the government raising the property tax after purchasing the property.

He told me that in his current home, in the year he bought the property, his taxes got raised by $1,700. I'm thinking somehow the prior owners were not paying the market rate, but he told me alot of people at his work have experienced this. I've never heard of this happening. I'm aware that municipalities/counties raise there taxes from time to time by a small %, but nothing of that margin.

How do I ensure that the tax rate I am going to pay is going to be the prior years+whatever % increase was issued by the municipality/county?

[Linda Weygant]

This also happened to me.  The prior owner had two reductions - a senior citizen reduction and a homestead reduction.  The following year, both of those reductions came off and I was hit with a property tax bill that was almost double.  Now I know to check the county website to see what the tax bill is comprised of.  It shows the normal tax and then the applicable reductions.