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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Contesting Your Property Values (thereby lowering your property taxes)


Please note that there will be a reappraisal of all residential properties in Cuyahoga County in 2012.  

During the summer, homeowners in Richmond Heights will have the opportunity to contest their property values (thereby lowering their property taxes) in-person with appraisers from the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office.

In October 2011, Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer Wade Steen held a meeting in Richmond Heights.  He recommended that homeowners bring the following information to the appraisers in order to successfully lower their home values:
  1. A list of several comparable values of houses in your neighborhood;
  2. A list of recent sales prices of homes in your neighborhood;
  3. Information about the current condition of your home, such as its age and quality;
  4. Evidence that the information listed about your home on the County’s website is inaccurate, such as you have no air-conditioning or you have no deck; and,
  5. Pictures.


To be clear, you do not need to employ an agent or consultant to contest your property values.  You can successfully advocate for yourself.

The Plain Dealer wrote a good article about “so-called” tax appeal analysis firms on January 18, 2011.  The title of the article is “Companies sell tax-appeal analysis that Cleveland-area residents can do for free.”  You can find it online.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 216.780.5087 or send me an email at mieshaheaden@sbcglobal.net.