Got our county tax bills in the mail yesterday and nearly fainted when I looked at the personal property tax. I have 4 utility trailers with permanent tags (2 were inherited from family) and 2 old non-running vehicles. Value went from $10,974 in 2022 to $33,286 in 2023. And the tax rate went up as well. No issue with what they have the trailers valued at.
My grandfather's 1956 Chevrolet truck has not run since the late 1960's, is sitting outside rusting away with trees growing up through the bed and around it, missing parts, is basically a parts truck and is not worth anywhere near the $15,200 they listed it at. My 1964 Impala has not run since my grandfather parked it in 1975 with transmission problems. It is mostly complete, rusted, some areas somewhat disassembled, but needs a complete restore, is stored in my shed and they have it valued at $14,450. I appealed the values several years ago and she told me they reevaluate them every 5 years. The vehicles have deteriorated since the last appeal and they think they have tripled in value. They must be watching Barrett Jackson auctions to get their values. I told her I would be glad to sell them both for their listed values, but they are not in the buying business. She said they use NADA and JD Powers, low retail, to value them and when I went to those sites, they did not ask for the condition, running or not, on the vehicles and the values must be for running and driving vehicles.
I went out and took pictures and putting together a letter describing each vehicles condition to send with the appeal, which I have 30 days from the date of the tax bill. I've looked online trying to find older non-running vehicle prices, but not coming up with much. Used to find a lot of similar vehicles on AutoTrader and Ebay but not this time. Most of the car valuation sites do not go back earlier than 1990. I used the NC DMV's online "vehicle property tax estimator which uses the VIN number and county tax rates and they had the car at $2030 and the truck at $800, but she said they would not use those values.
My cousins had an auction for my deceased uncle's property back in March and his 1959 Chevy pickup went for $650, his 1965 Impala went for $350 and his 1965 Caprice went for $900. Slightly worse condition than mine and he never paid property taxes on any of them once they were no longer tagged.
Any recommendations where to get real value information that I can include and not just rely on their "research"?
My grandfather's 1956 Chevrolet truck has not run since the late 1960's, is sitting outside rusting away with trees growing up through the bed and around it, missing parts, is basically a parts truck and is not worth anywhere near the $15,200 they listed it at. My 1964 Impala has not run since my grandfather parked it in 1975 with transmission problems. It is mostly complete, rusted, some areas somewhat disassembled, but needs a complete restore, is stored in my shed and they have it valued at $14,450. I appealed the values several years ago and she told me they reevaluate them every 5 years. The vehicles have deteriorated since the last appeal and they think they have tripled in value. They must be watching Barrett Jackson auctions to get their values. I told her I would be glad to sell them both for their listed values, but they are not in the buying business. She said they use NADA and JD Powers, low retail, to value them and when I went to those sites, they did not ask for the condition, running or not, on the vehicles and the values must be for running and driving vehicles.
I went out and took pictures and putting together a letter describing each vehicles condition to send with the appeal, which I have 30 days from the date of the tax bill. I've looked online trying to find older non-running vehicle prices, but not coming up with much. Used to find a lot of similar vehicles on AutoTrader and Ebay but not this time. Most of the car valuation sites do not go back earlier than 1990. I used the NC DMV's online "vehicle property tax estimator which uses the VIN number and county tax rates and they had the car at $2030 and the truck at $800, but she said they would not use those values.
My cousins had an auction for my deceased uncle's property back in March and his 1959 Chevy pickup went for $650, his 1965 Impala went for $350 and his 1965 Caprice went for $900. Slightly worse condition than mine and he never paid property taxes on any of them once they were no longer tagged.
Any recommendations where to get real value information that I can include and not just rely on their "research"?
