Watch out for new tax assessments in 2008
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007If you own property in the riverside of the Bywater neighborhood and bought for less than $131.71 a square foot, your tax assessment will probably go up next year. That’s the message third district tax assessor Erroll Williams gave at tonight’s Bywater Neighborhood Association Meeting (BNA).
The new assessments will take effect next tax year, 2008, and although Williams was specifically addressing the Bywater neighborhood, the new assessments will cover all of the 3rd District, which is the largest assessment district in New Orleans, covering everything form Bayou St. John and Esplanade Avenue to New Orleans East. It includes the historic neighborhoods of Bywater, Marigny, Gentilly, Holy Cross, and some parts of MidCity and Eplanade Ridge which comprise the 7th, 8th, and 9th Wards.
Why the new assessment? Williams said many people’s values were lowered after the storm to account for possible damage, and almost two years after the storm, it’s time to account for repairs. “Now I’m going after all the properties I reduced,” Williams told a crowd of about 40 Bywater neighbors.
In Bywater, Williams said his office looked at recent sales after Katrina for residential homes (which includes condos, singles and doubles) and came up with a value of $131.71 per square foot. I don’t have the figures for other neighborhoods right now, or for the Bywater on the lake side or directly on St. Claude Avenue.
To figure out your tax bill for property on the riverside of St. Claude from Press Street to Poland Avenue, take your square footage times that price, and that should be the new appraised value you see on your tax bills next year. If it’s not, that means Williams’ office may have the wrong square footage for your house.
“We haven’t had the manpower to measure every home,” Williams said, “so we’ve been relying on forms y’all have filled out as homeowners, the LET forms. So if there’s a problem with your square footage or your assessments, you need to let us know.”
The new tax assessments will be online (or at least SHOULD be online) by July 20th at the Orleans Board of Assessors website at www.opboa.org or you can call 504-658-1330 or visit them in person to check at City Hall on the 4th Floor, 1300 Perdido St.
What if you don’t like your new assessment? You have until August 20th to submit an appeal to his office. They’ll review your appeal and you are encouraged to bring in any evidence and documentation you have to support your claim including pictures, insurance coverage amounts, appraisals, etc. . . If you’re not happy with the outcome, you can appeal it to the board of review, and if that doesn’t work, then it gets sent to the Louisiana Tax Commission.
A little background information, the Third District is one of seven assessment districts in New Orleans run by seven different assessors. Voters agreed to trim that number down to one district and one assessor for the city, but that won’t happen until 2010. At tonight’s meeting, Williams said he intends to run for the office of the single assessor when that time comes.