Crawford County A Land Assessment Story: Crawford County
Evaluation Finds Misclassification and Measurement Errors

 

Tom and his partners have owned 158 acres of land in Crawford County since 1988. After receiving their property tax bill for $5,530 in December 2013, they seriously considered selling part or all of their property due to the high taxes. Before doing so, they contacted WAFO to learn what options they had available to them, whether it be entering the MFL or changing the use of their property to qualify for lower use-value assessment taxes.

An evaluation of their property identified that their assessor had not taken a detailed look at how their land was being used and had misclassified its use, resulting in a tax bill that was $1,700 higher than it should have been. Errors included:

  • Not recognizing land in CRP
  • Not acknowledging that part of the land was used for growing fruits and vegetables sold at local markets
  • Measurement errors on acreage associated with woodland and open, undeveloped land they owned.

WAFO prepared and provided Tom with the information identifying these errors which he then shared with his assessor.   Following submittal of this data, the assessor responded by thanking them for providing him the information he needed to correctly assess their land.

The bottom line: Their next property tax bill arrived showing they owed $3,800 as compared to the $5,530 they would have had to pay had they not reviewed their property, a savings sufficient enough to allow them to be able to keep their land and continue to enjoy it for more years to come.