Couple's Tax Bill Jumps To $17,000

[The Straight Story]

Couple's Tax Bill Jumps To $17,000

POSTED: 9:51 pm EDT September 27, 2006
UPDATED: 10:36 pm EDT September 27, 2006

A Central Florida couple was shocked to find their property tax bill jumped seven times what they paid the year before -- to $17,000, according to a Local 6 News investigation.

The report featured Patrick Peyton and his wife Esta who have lived on a swatch of land across from Rose Bay for more than a decade.

"We could afford it 13 years ago, just barely," Patrick Peyton said. "We both worked like crazy for four years to get it into a position where we could pay the mortgage and the insurance and everything."

"Last week, the 21st century tax man caught up with the Peyton's old Florida," Local 6's Mike Holfeld said. "Their life across the bay was disrupted by a registered letter from the Volusia County property appraiser's office."

"We had no idea this was coming," Peyton said.

"Could you afford it?" Holfeld said.

"No," Peyton said. "We would have to move. We would have to sell."

Peyton would have to sell because their tax bill in 2005 was about $2,600. Next year's bill was set at nearly $17,000.

"It's no mistake," Holfeld said. "In fact, the county's new assessed value for the property tops the $1 million mark."

http://www.local6.com/news/9950283/detail.html

[pitohui]

1. well i guess i don't see the problem

i would sell for the million dollars and move somewhere they don't get storms, i wish my property was worth a million dollars


whoa! on reading the story, assessed at 1.7 million dollars?

honey, your ship has come in, sell that stupid mobile home park with like 3 whole rentals on it, get out of florida, and find out what living is all about

[cigsandcoffee]

4. It's their home. Maybe they don't want to go.

Raising a tax bill by a factor of seven in one year strikes me as mafia tactics.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. coast exodus...

Central Florida will be above water longer when the seas rise.

I guess all of the sudden it's considered a better investment. :shrug:

[RB TexLa]

3. Until this post I had always found the phrase

"Shit a brick and die" to be rather silly. Guess I understand it now.

[MADem]

5. But it was a mistake, after all that

After the Problem Solvers report, the county reviewed the numbers and determined the new bill was just over $4,300. "The bad news is that the rentals lose that Homestead status and future bills may still force them to sell," Holfeld said.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Funny thing is

they probably wouldn't be able to get what it is appraised for. Sounds like they are just being gouged.