Bargain and sale deeds need look

Published 4:49 pm Friday, November 11, 2011

I tried to help some friends with their Snohomish County property tax appeal. They bought their house in 2010 for $214,000. It was assessed that same year for $330,000. I thought this should be easy; common sense says it’s worth what they paid for it, right? Wrong. The appeal failed. According to the assessor, the house is worth $116,000 more than what they paid for it! It also doesn’t matter that it was listed with a Realtor for months before they purchased it, which proves it’s what they call “an arm’s length transaction.” (Meaning uncle Fred isn’t selling his house at a discounted price to nephew Pierre.)

No, the fly in the ointment here is the fact that they bought it from a bank and banks sell properties via bargain and sale deeds. According to the Snohomish County Assessor’s Office, they don’t recognize those types of deeds because the Washington Department of Revenue forbids them from considering bargain percent sale deeds in their tax evaluation of property. I called the Washington Department of Revenue and they told me that is incorrect. They said the decision to use bargain and sale deeds is up to the assessor for that county. The people within the assessor’s office with whom I’ve had contact are smart, and make every attempt to be fair while working within rules and guidelines handed down from the administrative level. I think this problem with bargain and sale deeds, which is costing people in this county a ton of money, comes from the administrative level of the Snohomish County Assessor’s Office.

Brian Roggenbuck

Darrington