Governments and police tend to target the older law-abiding citizens who have worked hard all their life and pay their dues, simply because they're a soft and easy target.
They certainly don't want to get involved with young shit heads who are liable to turn nasty, give them plenty of aggro and may start torching cars and buildings.
LOL No kidding.
LOL. The permits do not seem to have any weight with them. They want to raise my taxes in Houston so suddenly my house is larger than it was when it was built and nothing has been added. Suddenly my house got bigger and my garage got smaller. Down here it is the air conditioned space that counts as the square footage that determines the tax bill. I pointed out the problem and they changed my garage size back to the real dimensions.
Presumably they expect to take in more in new taxes than they will spend on the project.
Brian Elfert
This is not new. The local county here started to use satellite imagery to spot unreported home improvements a number of years ago.
I'm not sure why they are doing this as I think the tax assessor has to revisit every house every five years or so.
Brian Elfert
I don't understand why property taxes are ever based on anything besides the value of your property. If you think tbe assessor has assigned too high a value you can pay an appraiser to do a formal appraisal.
In your case, it sounds like someone with a large lot or large garage would pay the same as someone with a small lot/garage but the same size living space.
Personally, I would do a local income tax with a flat fee for services for every house. A larger house doesn't usually mean more city services except maybe if it starts on fire. An eldery couple living on social security sometimes can't afford to stay in their house because the property taxes get so high.
Brian Elfert
Proper application of a semi-automatic rifle in .308 does the same thing.
On 1/2/2006 9:33 PM Texas Tommy mumbled something about the following:
The sign near the top of my driveway says "I'ld turn back if I were you". The next one a little further down (with a couple of .45 holes through the edges) says "If you can read this, you're in range".
So what? It's less expensive, easier and more thorough than driving around town, Satellite photos are routinely used by every planning/zoning/tax assessor office in the U.S. that I've come into contact with, and either replace or supplement the aerial photography that had been used. I guess this means that Britain is bringing their procedures up to the 20th Century --
Same here - and I plan to keep it that way.
Greg G.
Yeah and that eats up your savings. They have raised the balue of my house
5 years in a row now. Just enough to cost me a hundred or 2 extra each time.
Yup. And oddly regardless of the size of the house, the price per square food differs from one house to the next. A house 5 doors down from me is twice as large as mine and a single story home and his $ per square foot is $15 less.
Personally I think all houses in a neighborhood should pay the same per square foot of living space.
Sorry, but this is nonsense. I've had a TV licence for 50 years and I have never heard of such a thing!!
Methinks Europe (especially the Continent) has much bigger problems to worry about (if this guy has his numbers right):
On 1/3/2006 1:10 AM Leon mumbled something about the following:
So my doublewide trailer should appraise the same as my neighbors brick home, or the other neighbor's stick-frame home, even tho we are all about the same floorspace and about the same acreage? Sorry, I don't think so.
Around here, if you have an"agricultural" use, permits are not required. There is an astonishing number of quite complex buildings on property around here that don't do much for raising chickens or vegetables, but that were built permit-free. I halfway regret not getting a half dozen chickens, thus being able to skip the permit process when I built my shop. Halfway.
It starts out just fine in theory, but it seems to end up being taxation without representation, fostering inequities in the amount of taxes paid for government services rendered, and ultimately encourages governmental theft of private property with devices like the use of eminent domain for private purposes.
The elected bastards in office don't have to raise the tax rate to increase revenues (for which you would vote them out of office), but instead of being accountable to the taxpayer, rely on inflated appraisal values brought to you in part by third party influences ... like a greedy real estate industry (note the difference between a house sold/rented "by owner", versus one "listed" and sold/rented by a real estate firm).
The appraisal districts set the price and have the final word, but the burden of proof is upon the taxpayer. Retirees in many areas of the US are having to leave homes they bought and paid for because they can no longer pay the property tax bill based on rising appraisal values, and the late fees on tax bills which have become such a burden are usurious and benefit an army of lawyers instead of the public.
If that doesn't answer the question, then give me a good, logical reason why a 1500 sf, _primary_ residence for a family of four in Waco, TX pays only $900/year, while the same house on a comparable lot in a comparable neighborhood in the Houston area pays $7000+/year for the EXACT same amount of government services/public school/streets/etc?
In short, under the current "appraised valuation" system for home owners in Texas, many pay more and get the same/fewer government services for their money ... that's "inequity" by any definition.
It'll never happen because the local governments are now in the mode of protecting their turf/benefits (and bent on increasing the "tax base" in order to do so), but IMO, a homeowner should pay a state wide rate, based on square footage, for a _primary_ residence and NOT appraised value.
It's time to put the "appraisal districts" out of business and make our elected representative accountable for the amount of taxes being paid by the home owner.
IMO, that's the kind of thinking that's got us into trouble.
You're not paying taxes for the kind of house you live in, you're paying them for government services, REGARDLESS of the kind of house you live in.
Why should the guy with the brick house on your street pay more of his use of the street than you?
... think about it. ;)
"Charles Self" wrote [snip]
You could have gotten half a dozen eggs and put them in the shop ...
... just waiting for them to hatch!
Regards,
Rick
Speaking as a Brit all of this is a bit of an eye-opener for me, as call it what you will, Property tax, Council tax, Rates, it appears to be a topic which generates is much 'anger and argument' on your side of the pond as it does on ours, in fact I wasn't even aware that Americans were cursed with a similar (in many people's eyes, unfair) annual property tax as we have over here.
Ahh - understood.
Still, it's a damn shame.
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