Everyone in the whole city should file a grievance this year.   This is one questionable reassessment.

This was on tonight's  council agenda for a tax certiorari.  I will be interested in finding out what reduction was granted.   That is, was it reduced from $462,000 to $460,000?   Or to $400,000?   Lower?

The dems won't list in the agenda or minutes the dollar amount of the original assessment amount and the reduced amount granted via certiorari lawsuit.           


This is the certiorari granted for 1800 Van Vranken Ave.  


On the July 2011 final assessment roll,  the full market value was $462,000 and the assessment value was $462,000

On the July 2012 final assessment roll,  the full market value was $444,231 and the assessment value was $462,000

On December 27, 2012, a sale--defined as an arms length transaction--transpired with the sales price of $500,000

At the Feb 9, 2015 council meeting, a resolution took place accepting the tax certiorari lawsuit.


Because of the mayor's secrecy, neither the resolution passed tonight nor the back up contained in the council committee meeting last week, contains the reduced assessment value nor does it state what year it is retroactive to.

Based on the sale date, the new owners could have grieved no earlier than  the board of assessment in May 2013 or maybe they went to the board in May of 2014.  A certiorari suit would have been filed in July of 2013 or 2014; I can't determine for sure as the owner's name as it appears on the assessment roll does not seem to be the name listed as plaintiff's name (i.e., owner's name on assessment roll might show as XYZ Inc, but John Smith, the owner of the XYZ Inc business, might show as the plaintiff's name in court records)

Just an FYI:  On the July 2013 tentative assessment roll,  the full market value was $427,778 and the assessment value was $462,000.

Just an FYI:  On the July 2014 tentative assessment roll,  the full market value was $375,610 and the assessment value was $462,000.


So it's not known whether the reduced assessment will be retroactive to July 1, 2013 or July 1, 2014  (thus either 1 year or 2 years of overpaid taxes, i.e., tax year 2014 only or taxes for 2014 and 2015).

Again, we don't know whether the assessment value was reduced by only a few dollars, e.g., $460,000 or much lower, e.g., $400,000 or even less.

Just remember the sale price for the property in an arms length transaction on 12-27-12 was $500,000.



Most of you know what I'm getting at here, right?  The interesting little detail that doesn't add up