More reassessment complaints

Marge Sims says she’s being priced out of Harveys Lake and feels powerless to stop it.

“We’re getting pushed out because all these huge homes are going up by people who have money,” she said. “They’re building all over the lake.”

Sims said she and her husband Stanley live on less than $11,000 in Social Security disability per year. Property taxes on their 1.5-story home on Lakeside Drive were about $1,300.

The taxes were initially projected to increase to $4,800 through reassessment because the new assessed value of the property rose from about $68,400 to $359,300.

21st Century Appraisals Inc., the county’s reassessment company, agreed to reduce the value to $305,200 when Sims pointed out problems with the structure and water runoff during an Aug. 11 informal review.

Unless Sims obtains further reductions at a formal appeal, her taxes will be an estimated $3,261, or an increase of $1,961.

“If I don’t get a reduction, I will have to sell and take what we can get, hopefully enough to cover my mortgage and maybe have a few dollars left to find a new place to live,” said Sims, who has emphysema.

Sims said she has no money for a certified appraisal for her formal appeal. She said she can’t do research because she can “barely walk” and is busy caring for her mother who suffers from cancer.

“I’m going to the appeal armed with a bunch of photos because that’s all I can afford,” she said.

Obtaining further reductions may be challenging because her house sits along Lakeside Drive, the lake’s main drag.

It’s the 0.11 acre beneath her home – not the structure itself – that has boosted her value, said Tim Barr of reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals Inc.

21st Century reduced the home value from $123,100 to $69,000 as a result of the informal review. The condition of the home – one of the factors used to determine the new assessed value – was downgraded from average to fair, Barr said.

The new land value – $236,200 – was not changed, he said. Barr said sales of other properties support that value. Some people are buying old structures along Lakeside Drive for the location and then tearing or burning them down to build new ones, he said.

Sims has no lakefront access and doesn’t believe she could get more than $150,000. She has lived at the lake since the 1970s, first renting. In 1981 the couple bought a 1.5-story home for $27,000, where they raised five children.

“It was relaxing back then, like living in the country. The kids could swim in the lake, and there were fewer homes, and we had bingo and arcades here and a park,” she said. Today, the lake has “a different feel.”

“They want it to be a ritzy place. It feels like you’re back in the city.”

Linda Bennett, another low-income resident who lives off the lake on Outlet Road, said she does not know how she will afford her tax increase, even though the dollar amount was drastically reduced as a result of an informal review.

Bennett lives in a 48-year-old mobile home that sits on 0.7 acre owned by her 81-year-old father. She pays all property taxes and said her father is also low-income and currently in the hospital for medical problems.

The new assessed value increased from the equivalent of $30,600 to $92,700, which would’ve raised the taxes from $580 to an estimated high of $1,238.

21st Century agreed after the informal review to lower the value to $61,000, primarily because the parcel, which is split into two deeds, had been incorrectly rated as having a superior view.

Bennett said some may scoff at her for complaining about $72, but her only income is about $7,200 in Social Security disability. She said she suffers from asthma and emphysema.

“Even if it’s $10 more, I don’t have it. I am so budgeted, I am beyond a budget. I couldn’t tweak it any more than I do,” she said.

The 59-year-old said she’s lived at the lake since she was a child and can’t imagine leaving for public housing in another town. She wants to show the public that some people who live at the lake are struggling, though revealing her finances is “belittling.”

“People say they’re tired of people crying at the lake. I am literally crying. Come see how some of us live,” Bennett said. “It’s like we have to undress ourselves in front of everybody to show that some of us have it tough. These people do not realize what they’re doing to some of us people.”

Officials have repeatedly stressed they cannot adjust values based on inability to pay and that no-fee informal reviews were set up to correct errors or present new information about properties. Barr said both cases show the informal reviews were beneficial.

Harveys Lake property owner Michelle Boice, who is trying to help both property owners, said she believes the values should have been lower in the first place and that mistakes, such as the superior view rating on Bennett’s property, are unacceptable.

“I am right now trying to sell one for $59,900 with no takers, even though it’s a completely remodeled and winterized cottage on a nice street with a new roof, new furnace, new wiring, etc. Linda would be hard-pressed to get $61,000,” she said.