Aliso Viejo, CA · Member since 2017 · 18 posts · 4 votes
I’m researching how property taxes are calculated in Cuyahoga County as I’m working on a purchase in the Cleveland area and I’m finding a straight answer is harder to come by on the County website than I expected.
I understand property “market values” used in calculating property taxes are assessed every three years through a County appraisal process. However, does an actual arm’s length transaction immediately (or almost immediately) trigger the increase in market value when taxes are assessed?
In other words, if the current tax bill shows a property’s market value at $60,000, and I purchase it for $100,000, will taxes be assessed based up on the $100,000 value? Does a transaction matter or is it all the 3 year appraisal process?
I just reached out to a property tax attorney about this exact topic in Cuyahoga County. As a standard, there are no automatic increases due to sale in Cuyahoga County. The school board would have to contest the assed value to increase it, but this is very rare and is usually only done when there is a huge increase in sale price compared to county assessed. A $40k increase is considered small.
@Matthew Jure - Not the information that I have received in the past.
The school district actively looks for sales over the current assessed value and will automatically appeal it (higher) between the tri-annual assessments. The property tax rate (all in) works out to ~ 5% so a 40K increase on what was a 60K home (now 100K) is a 66% increase (or 3K to 5K).
They have a firmc(s) on retainer that (I think) do it for a flat fee / success fee. It's mostly paperwork that a para-legal or admin can do and over the number of transactions that occur, adds up.
The school district is always looking for funds so eventually they will catch up to you. Depending on when your sale date is, you possibly get a 1 year deferral on the increase in a rising market.
None of my recent purchases there triggered an automatic increase (mostly purchased for a few thousand over value) however as mentioned I believe the county is doing a review this year.
Quick question though on the 920 reduction, are rental properties still eligible for that discount/stabilization?
They may not raise the taxes automatically after a sale price over their assessed value. But if you improve the property and get permits, my experience has been that it can trigger a tax increase.
I actually called the County appraisal department and received some clarity on this. Right now (end of July) they are sending notices regarding the new assessed values. The process of reappraising each property which they do once every six years is concluding right now. Hypothetically if a property were to sell tomorrow, they’ve already set the new assessed value based upon the appraisal, and it would be too late to reassess the value based upon the sale. Once they conduct their valuation update which is every three years, they will pick up on the sale transaction and that likely will change them assessed value at that time.
I just reached out to a property tax attorney about this exact topic in Cuyahoga County. As a standard, there are no automatic increases due to sale in Cuyahoga County. The school board would have to contest the assed value to increase it, but this is very rare and is usually only done when there is a huge increase in sale price compared to county assessed. A $40k increase is considered small.
Any good recommendations you can share for a property tax attorney? Also what was your experience like, were you able to successfully lower the asssesement?