Horry County Property Tax Authorities Living In (On?) The Past?

We at Price & Company Realty have a number of clients who are very unhappy recipients of their property tax bills that arrived in their mailboxes last month.

These folks own property here in Myrtle Beach and have watched the value of surrounding properties drop like anvils in a Road Runner cartoon. Now they receive their property tax bill, which shows that the tax assessor thinks their property is worth what it was worth four years ago!

Well, we all know that it just ain't so.

The good news is that the Horry County Assessor's office has a system in place whereby these owners can appeal the assessment. Of course, there's always the possibility that the Assessor's investigation will result in a higher assessment, but that's the chance you have to take.

The bad news is that we've been told by the Assessor's office that they will not consider, as proof of decline in value, any comparable property sale that has taken place in 2009... that any comparable sale must be on or before December 31, 2008.

If you're like me, you're probably picking your jaw up off the floor right now.

How the tax authorities can get away with summarily dismissing proof of current value when considering an appeal to assessed value speaks to the sheer madness that has plagued the status quo of Horry County government for decades. If perchance there is a good, legal reason for the way this is being done, we certainly invite those involved to respond here on our blog so that our readers can see both sides.