So you live in a Historic District in Phoenix, eh?
Is your home registered as “historic” and “owner occupied” on the Maricopa County Website?
Verifying if your property is listed as Non-Commercial Historic
Step One: Go to https://mcassessor.maricopa.gov/
Step Two: Type your address into the search bar
Step 3: Click on the proper address APN
Scroll down a bit and you’ll see something like this… See in previous years, mine was classified as a rental? But for 2018 and projected into 2019 it’s classified as non-commercial historic.
It’s the amount Assessed LPV which is used for the tas assessment calculation. Here in Arizona, our taxes are paid in arrears. So our October bill, is for the first 6 months of the year.
If your home was ever used as a rental, be sure to check this annually… even after I showed proof of owner occupied, it didn’t translate over when the county sent out the preliminary assessments. (note: when these come in the mail, you can always contest them. Use this time to make sure everything is in order for the classifications AND the square footage.
So you’re in a historic district and you’ve checked and you don’t have non-commercial designation when you look up your property on the county tax assessor website?
Head on over to the Arizona State Parks and Trails site, specifically to this page:
Everything is listed on that page, with links to applications and the criteria. If you’ve done work to your home, definitely highlight what was kept original. If you live in Willo… pretty much your exterior will have to stay original, less colors and a few other things we can freely change without approval from City of Phoenix’s Historic Preservation Office.
I completed and sent in the application and supporting documents and the Change of Ownership Affidavit.
The state will review those documents and send you approval. They’re also supposed to send to the County Assessor. For good measure, you may want to take a trip down there once you have the approved documents in hand to make sure it’s entered correctly.
Now you wait. You wait until your next tax assessment arrives and make sure it shows a reduced rate. None of this information is shared with your mortgage servicer, so it’s up to you to do the leg work once you have the approval.
Contacting your Mortgage Servicer:
Step One: Follow steps one and two above.
Step Two: Scroll down until you see this… Click!
Step Three: Click on “View YEAR details”
It’ll show your total assessment. Walking the person at your mortgage servicing company through these steps should do it. I recommend having your current statement with you so you know what the past amount held in escrow for taxes was.
The mortgage servicer will get things set up. Once they send a statement with your new amount you pay the lower amount then. They’ll send you an escrow summary statement at some point and if you’re lucky enough to have an overage in your escrow account, they’ll issue you a refund. Hooray!!