Filing of property tax appeals hits a 6-year low, Only 1,422 challenge assessments in 2012

FLORIDA -- The number of petitions filed in appeal of assessed property tax values are at a six-year low in Lee County, according to Clerk of Court records.

In a county with more than 600,000 properties, only 1,422 have had their values appealed in 2012, according to Clerk of Court records. About three times as many petitions were filed in 2008, with 4,264 property owners refuting their values at end of the real estate boom and 2120 filed last year.

“It’s a phenomenal record,” Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson said. “I would be willing to bet we have the best record in the state.”

The vast majority of property owners who walked into Wilkinson’s office after receiving their assessment in August, he said, had questions about homestead exemptions.

The Value Adjustment Board consists of five members, including two county commissioners, a commission appointee, a school board member and a person appointed by the school board.

Attorneys and property appraisers sit as special magistrates at hearings, in which property owners contests their appraised values.

Wilkinson’s office gave Brian McGloin his homestead exemption back after he filed a petition with the Value Adjustment Board.

“They just got back to me and said they made a mistake, ‘Your homestead is back in effect,’ ” McGloin said. “That’s all I wanted. I was complaining about the assessment, but I really wanted my homestead back.”

McGloin lives in Cape Coral, which saw some one of the area’s biggest increases in taxable value at 3.82 percent. Countywide values dropped by 0.2 percent.

But not everyone has settled their dispute.

Another Cape Coral man, Richard Kistner, said the property appraiser valued his home at $125,000 this year after he paid $65,000 for it in 2010.

“The $65,000 was the MLS price on the open market. This wasn’t a closed door deal,” Kistner said. “When I asked why they weren’t limited to just 3 percent (increase) they said on first-time sales they had no limit.”

“To me, this whole thing stinks. Its become stupid,” he said.

Wilkinson said Kistner and others like him will have their disputes reviewed again by higher-ups in his office, before they make it to the Value Adjustment Board.

“Often times, if it’s on the first line, the analyst who did the work, they might not be able to justify an adjustment,” Wilkinson said. “Further getting into it, that may expose itself and we have no problem with making an adjustment.”

Propertyowners had until Sept. 14 to appeal their values. Hearings will start Oct. 15.

The Clerk of Court anticipates having all the hearings finished by January, Chief Operating Officer Linda Doggett said. In previous years, she said, hearings have lasted into the spring.

“It’s probably not going to take as long as it has in the past,” Doggett said. “As property values are down, not that many people are complaining about their tax bills.”