I have a mobile home park in Victoria, TX. I recently received notice that my real property taxes are increasing 300% on the next invoice. The appraisal district said the state is forcing them to increase values to fair market level, which in my case is the purchase price on the park in 2019. This increase will create a hardship on me and the residents since, ultimately, I will pass on as much as I can to them.
The appraisal district considers my property commercial although there is technically no zoning in Victoria.
Can anyone here provide advice on what I can do in this situation? I do plan to protest this increase since it is happening all at once and the county really does need affordable housing.
There are companies out there that will do this as a matter of routine paper mill; you pay them a portion of the amount saved after you “win” and they haggle with the district to lower the taxes. It’s practically a no-lose situation except for the nosy info the protest firm asks of you. For example I believe O’Connor https://www.poconnor.com/ operates in Texas.
Thank you, Brandon. I’ll check it out. The last consultant I used was not able to reduce the taxes, but perhaps the different circumstances will yield a better result.
Peggy, the local county tax offices in some location are becoming very aggressive in raising taxes. Some park owners are taking their increased tax bills to their tenants. For example taxes are $20,000 for a 100 site park the new procedure is to divide the $20,000 into 100 for a charge of $200 per unit. Residents are given the bill and have 2 months to pay----when that information is shown to the assessor office they are MORE careful in their capricious activity. Go raise the taxes you are making it more difficult for poor people to exist—do you want homeless people??? Probably would not fly in a blue state??? It is being done in Florida!!!
@Peggy_Tate I was looking at the following URL Victoria County Texas Property Taxes - 2023 and I too have the same problem at one of our parks in Minnesota. The Assessor does not look at each property individually, but as an aggregate of “like properties,” otherwise they would have to pay to have each property individually appraised. That being said, it appears that the tax payment averages 1.79% of the average aggregate which in your case should be MHP and hopefully they are not using commercial. As a double benefit to you (and you might ask your CPA), but if you obtained a Cost Segregation Study from a company that specializes in MHP where the land gets the least value and the capital improvements get the most, if the land value is considerably less than what the Assessor claims you could use the Cost Segregation Study to Appeal the Assessment and if you guessed on your capital improvements for depreciation and the Cost Segregation Study comes in higher you may be able to adjust your deprecation amount? Just a thought, but us @carl stated if you pass through the expense and let your residents know what the City is doing to them maybe coupled with the local press, you might be able to “move a mountain.”
i doubt the tax assessor cares who pays the bill so i wouldnt pass the tax costs to tenants unless its written into your lease…, actually TX is the most property tax disputed state in the union, id start with a reliable co who has a record of disputes in TX .
It does not need to be in the lease, it needs to be in the landlord tenant regulations. Usually all landlord expences are pass along to tenants. Taxes, cost of living increases, capitol expences etc.
If the regulations do not specificly state you can not pass the expence to tenants then you generally are allowed to pass them along.
Is there not a way to straight up just appeal it? In SC, we can appeal property taxes - both personal property and real estate (personal are things such as vehicle tax, which we have).
I would start there. Build your case as to why this is not just unfair, but frankly inconceivable. Tax increases of 5-35% are at least tolerable. But 300%? That could lead some to default, and then tax sale. Arguments:
price increase is not reasonable or customary (show historical and/or other property tax rate changes for comparison)
demonstrate real hardship. (how this increase will negatively impact you/your property)
hurts “affordable housing” that you provide. This could be tied into the hardship above. Others in this post have mentioned how it will affect your tenants, so highlight that.
