Property Tax Adjuster Scam Reaches Oregon

Worries about scams prevent people from using legitimate property tax appeal services which means more homeowners overpay their property taxes.

Oregon media has been reporting recently on a property tax adjustment scam. Oregon taxpayers received letters from a company called Property Tax Adjusters, located in California. According to the Eugene, Oregon Register Guard, the letters were written using “official-sounding language, calling the form the 2010 Property Tax Reduction Form.” This official sounding letter has concerned taxpayers who believe that this company is claiming affiliation with or endorsement from the government Assessment Office.

The first sign that Property Tax Adjusters are scammers is that their letters were mailed after the window for filing an appeal in Oregon had already closed, with a listed Response Due Date of April 16th. This date is unrelated to the appeal window during which property tax appeals can be filed in Oregon. Plus, Oregon counties have not begun the process of assessing properties for the 2010-2011 tax year. Oregon tax officials are advising property owners to ignore these letters.

The men behind Property Tax Adjusters have already been convicted and handed a jail sentence, but that does not mean that all companies that offer similar services are to be distrusted. Unfortunately, one fraudulent company can taint public opinion.

ValueAppeal offers property owners the opportunity to create their custom appeal evidence report within the unique appeal window for filing appeals set by each County we service. Knowing that property assessment appeal process is handled differently on a county by county basis, ValueAppeal takes into consideration the differences in process and strict timelines set by each county.

Oregon officials are suggesting that property owners ignore services that claim to appeal property taxes for a fee because an individual can file their own property tax assessment at no charge. While ValueAppeal recognizes that individuals may in fact file their own property tax appeals, we also know that the property assessment appeal process is notoriously opaque and complicated, inhibiting many property owners from ever starting the process.

To win an appeal the homeowner must provide detailed comparable sales evidence to prove their case for a lower assessment. Compiling this evidence is more difficult than it might seem and ValueAppeal provides a simple, trustworthy option that makes it easy with guaranteed results or your money back.

Know your chances up front

Any legitimate service should tell you, before you pay a single dollar, whether appealing is right for you each year. At ValueAppeal, you simply enter your address on our homepage and we tell you instantly for free whether appealing makes sense this year and why; any service that doesn't allow you to find out this information beforehand doesn't deserve your money.

Depending on which county you’re in, if you type ten different addresses into our homepage more than half will return a result of “You’re Not Overassessed”.  We won’t tell you to appeal if you don’t have a strong chance of winning.