Adventures With The Hamilton County Board of Revisions
By Sarah Wolf, Hamilton County, Ohio
Black’s Law Dictionary defines a Kangaroo Court as “1. A self-appointed tribunal or mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded, perverted, or parodied . . . . 2. A court or tribunal characterized by unauthorized or irregular procedures, esp. so as to render a fair proceeding impossible. 3. A sham legal proceeding.” (9th edition, 2009)
Follow along and see if you recognize any telltale symptoms.
First, the facts:
We bought our property in 2019 for $215,000. It consisted of a run-down 500 sq ft carriage house and a 5,000 sq ft commercial building that had been the Knights of Columbus clubhouse from 1920 to 1986, a music box museum until about 1993, and the Lion of Judah independent church until 2019.
The property had been on the market for at least 2 years, advertised at $275,000.
The main building has a 119 year old slate roof that leaks. Repair estimate from Reliable Slate was approx. $240,000.
The main building had no kitchen. It currently has a temporary, rudimentary kitchen. Estimated price of a mid-level kitchen is $98,000.
The front/side porch foundation, pillars and steps were (and are) collapsing, and the porch surface was (and is) concrete rubble and gravel. All this damage was caused by freeze damage from the leaking roof and century-old gutters. Estimated repairs are $30,000 to $120,000 depending on the quality and extent of the work.
The first floor consists of 2 bedrooms, 2 and ½ bathrooms, a living room/kitchen, a dining room and a den/office. There is an unconditioned back enclosed porch.
The second floor consists of a huge open room, a bathroom and three small storage rooms. This area is un-insulated, unheated and uncooled. Estimated cost to install HVAC is approx. $76,000, but without insulation, which is essentially impossible to install due to the cathedral ceiling, it would be hideously expensive and environmentally reprehensible to operate. This floor is only habitable for a couple of months in the spring and fall.
The 4500 sq ft driveway is cracked, potholed and crumbling. Estimated repair is $19,000.
We invested $16,000 in approved repairs and updates in 2019 through 2022, and submitted a petition for tax abatement through the county.
Now the fun begins:
In late 2023 we were informed that the County had appraised our property at $695,000. Yes, that is correct. In the 30 months between our $215,000 purchase and $16,000 investment, Jessica Miranda’s crack team of East Coast computer programmers and career bureaucrats determined that the property value had increased by almost a half million dollars- a 323% increase. That’s 10% per month, 120% per year. Warren Buffet never made such a great investment.
Maybe some old-timers here remember when Dusty Rhodes was on our site and insisted that the Auditor could not lower our assessment values because the “State would go after the Auditors”. We looked up such cases, and the only one we could find was the Reynolds case in Butler County. Problem was – the State did not go after this Auditor because his valuations were too low, they went after him because of alleged bribery. Reynolds’ DEFENSE was that the State was after him for keeping values too low (FYI , Reynolds was acquitted). Okay, fine. If the County is afraid of the State going after them, then all they need is some cover or evidence to defend a homeowner’s value, right? So if a homeowner comes into the BOR with a private appraisal by a reputable, licensed, independent appraiser (and they are not cheap) then that should cover them, right?
My husband I did just that – got an appraisal. Our appraisal was about 18% higher than our May 2019 purchase price. We presented it to the BOR. (see definition above). Should have been an open and shut case, County is covered, County gets more money, end of story. Yet two out of three BOR “judges” wouldn’t accept it. An appraisal. From a licensed, bonded appraiser in good standing with 30 years of experience. The BOR judges concluded that the $700k valuation from Visions/Lexur (the East Coast computer modeling firm which the Auditor pays $6 million per year to appraise Cincinnati properties) was too high, (that admission is actually in the transcript of the hearing) but didn’t know what it was worth (also in the transcript)- Despite the fact that: 1) we had purchased it less than 3 years prior for $215,000 ; 2, we had submitted receipts to the county for $16,000 in improvements we had done to the property, and; 3, the county’s hired gun, on-the-payroll appraiser had access to the exterior of the home any time he wanted and some 60 crystal clear high resolution photographs of every square foot of the interior of the home color taken shortly after the tax deadline done. But somehow it was our fault that the appraisal was so preposterous.
A quick word about the BOR. It is a “quasi-judicial” board of three judges who hear and decide property tax appeals from aggrieved owners. The owner is allowed to make his or her case and introduce evidence, as long as he or she does it in the 15 minute window of time alloted by the Board for this important decision. And if you take too long giving the background or important details, they will let you know that they “have a lot of hearings to get to that day so could you move it along….” (also on our transcript). Nevermind that you have waited the better part of a year for your hearing (even though they are required to schedule it within 90 days of the complaint period) and that they are employed by the County and paid for by taxpayers – so you’ll forgive me if I think of it as OUR time, not theirs. The three “judges” are appointed by, you guessed it: the very people who want your tax money. One is appointed by Jessica Miranda, who decided the very assessment you are appealing, one is appointed by Jill Schiller, the person to whom you pay the tax, and one is appointed by Alicia Reece, who gets to spend that tax money. Most importantly: The taxpayer has the burden of proof. We clearly met that burden of proof, but the BOR mistakenly believes that this means the County doesn’t have to provide any proof at all, but is merely required to generally disagree with the taxpayer’s evidence. Which is all the County did. The County’s $86,000 per year appraiser submitted not one iota of evidence supporting the County’s claim. Not one photo. Not one comp. Nothing. But we lost anyway.
So, we hired a lawyer, appealed the decision to the Tax Court in Columbus and paid for another appraisal by another independent appraiser. We presented that appraisal to the County, but they still wouldn’t come down a single dollar. Nope. They insisted that they could not possibly assign a value unless they had one of their appraisers see inside the property. Apparently the 120 odd color photos provided by two independent appraisers could not provide the granular evidence that the County required, That’s right. The County demanded to come into our home.
We did not want the government invading our home because we don’t want the government invading our home. We don’t need a reason. Look it up. It’s the 4th Amendment. That’s why it exists. Except, of course, in Hamilton County. And given the County’s obvious desire to justify their original mistake, they would be looking for any leverage to do so. Maybe some the peeling wallpaper is a health hazard, maybe the toilet height is non-ADA, maybe there was a two-inch discrepancy for how far a foreign-made appliance needed to be from a wall according to the directions written by that country for which there was no local code (true story), maybe they could find some lead paint. Who knows? Any threat to use as a bargaining chip. And what gives here? It’s almost as if they didn’t WANT the taxpayer to get a fair shake. It’s almost as if it wasn’t the State that was after the County, but the County was after the homeowner (perhaps this particular homeowner?) Under threat of economic retaliation, we finally relented and let the County’s appraisers in our home. There were two of them. They inspected the same exterior to which they had access at any time in the prior two years. They took photos of the same stuff that the independent appraisers had photographed and provided to them. They were provided with the same independent repair estimates that we had provided before.
A few days later, we got the County’s updated appraisal. $410,000, with the ominous warning that they reserved the right to increase that number if they wanted to. As the average of our two independent appraisals was $327,000 it is unequivocal that the two county employees had marching orders to appraise our home at as high as they possibly dared after doubling down on the outrageous amount of nearly $700,000. Basically, they were admitting that tripling our taxes was a bit too far, but doubling our taxes was perfectly reasonable. We got a Tax Court date in Columbus, and the week before the date they came down to $400,000. Faced with the prospect of another several thousand dollars in legal fees, witness fees, travel and trial preparation, we reluctantly accepted. There is more to that negotiation, which is pretty telling about the County, but that is another court case for another day.
So instead of tripling our taxes, they’re only doubling our taxes (while the Treasurer insists that taxes only went up 10 percent). I have no doubt that we will eventually abolish or drastically reform property taxes—it just takes time—time too many homeowners don’t have. In the meantime, we need to reform the Board of Revisions. This BOR complaint process is an illusion that gives the appearance that tax payers can do something about their values, but there are no standards and no rules, and no one is advocating for the taxpayer. The reason the Auditor is an elected position is because he or she is supposed to fight for the homeowner when things like this happen. (FYI, the grapevine suggested that the reason the County was being so unreasonable with us was because Jessica Miranda wants to be a “tough guy.” To which I ask, “tough to WHOM?!” Does she want to be “tough” with the taxpayers that she is supposed to be fighting for? Or to the bloated and inept county bureaucrats and money-sucking entities who keep her elected and pay her six-figure salary?)
How many of you lost your BOR appeal? How many of you were told that “if you had an appraisal we could have done something for you?” How many of you had an appraisal and the BOR denied that appraisal? How many of you sent in pictures and had your value lowered without a hearing? How many of you had comparable properties that you asked them to consider and they did or did not lower your valuation? How many of you sat through your BOR hearing while at least one “judge” spent their whole time on their phone? It seems to be a crapshoot because there ARE NO STANDARDS. It’s whatever the County feels like doing, for, or to, whomever the County feels like doing it for or to. It’s serfdom, pure and simple, and I don’t think we should put up with it.
The fox is currently guarding your henhouse. We need to change the administrative code and demand the following:
1. A petitioner’s advocate gets a vote in all BOR hearings.
2. The BURDEN OF PROOF must be on the County, not the petitioner, so the County must provide a complete analysis of the reasoning behind every assessment.
3. A prevailing BOR petitioner may deduct the cost of his or her appraisal from his/her tax bill, and a prevailing petitioner to Tax Court of the Court of Common Pleas may deduct costs and attorney fees for his/her appeal from bis/her property taxes.
So I need some help here – we need to mine through the BOR hearing results for the last couple of years to assemble evidence in favor of amendment of the Ohio Revised Code, the Ohio Administrative Code, and other procedural rules. We will start with copies of every 2023 BOR petition, and the decision of each of the Board “judges” in each of those cases. These documents are retained by law, and are open to public inspection by law (ORC 57q5, et seq.) I have already requested these documents, but have been ignored. Let me know if you are willing to send emails in support of my requests. They can’t blow all of us off.
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Categories: Community Activism, Real Estate Taxes