Re: [UC] Question about revised property assessments

[Glenn moyer]

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your trouble.  As you continue, I would write down all the names of the officials, and the details of what was said. Ultimately, you will probably need to take it to your councilperson too. You will probably need to identify a specific individual of authority, and then figure out how to get through the firewall and locked doors to arrange a meeting.

This dance, around different departments and offices, has been with Philadelphia for a long time.  But it's gotten worse in recent years, because the priorities and processes of the real power bosses have gotten more brutal.  It seems that any mistake made by the city, that unfairly charges us, is always dismissed because the "city needs the money" and "the computer" has the only power.

I'm having a problem too, that others may have experienced.  The gentrification relief program, LOOP, sent out the full property tax amount to the mortgage company.  They sent in a letter, that people who believed they qualify, were responsible to notify their company, to only pay the lower amount.  Why?  That seems totally unnecessary and a set-up for mistakes!  But the bosses of the city didn't care, and instead of simply doing their work properly and sending the correct bill to mortgage companies; they sent the full amount which my company paid

Well, I followed the long instructions of the mortgage company exactly, but they gave me the wrong address and lost the paperwork.  I've already wasted a good bit of time and it appears that I'm going to face a run around like you, and pay the higher  monthly payment because the city has the money.  It looks like I will be on the hook to claw this money back from the city.  As you, I hope somebody does have an efficient suggestion, but I suspect that both of us will be wasting more time to correct these "mistakes."

They know that a good percentage of citizens will never manage to get through all this, and the city will keep the money to give away to powerful business cronies.  

I wish you good luck!

Glenn

-----Original Message-----
From: Mimi Iijima
Sent: Apr 23, 2014 11:13 AM
To: Main List
Subject: [UC] Question about revised property assessments

Hello, Neighbors --

Would anyone know how I can expedite official readjustments to our 2014 property tax?  I can't get a straight answer from city employees at the OPA and Revenue Department.  OPA tells me that the Revenue Department makes things official while the Revenue Department tells me that that is OPA's job...  

As a result of the city's initial over-valuation of our property, our family is faced with a huge escrow payment and hundreds more in monthly mortgage payments until we get official documents showing our new assessment and taxes.  While we were able to successfully demonstrate to OPA that home's value should be lowered (our house still needs a lot of work), we are still stuck with a less than ideal financial situation until the city gets around to processing the paperwork.  Sigh.

Thanks for your guidance!

Best,

R. Mimi Iijima

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