LIVERMORE FALLS – The town’s Assessment Review Board has voted 3-2 to grant a $3,800 valuation reduction on a mobile home. That dropped the taxes from about $232 to $139.37.
Earlier, selectmen had denied an abatement of valuation to Robert and Tina Reed in February.
Town Manager Martin Puckett said Thursday the Board of Assessment Review found that there was an error in valuation and approved the devaluation from $16,500 to $12,700 Tuesday night.
Voting for the lower assessment value were Chairman Tammy Greaton, Guy Palmieri and Pam Cook, Puckett said. Opposing it were Norman Brown and Jackie Knight.
The Reeds attended several selectmen’s meetings to try and explain to the board that it was not their mobile home that was assessed in 2003 in Hunton Loop. The owner of that trailer had moved it off the rented lot, and the Reeds had moved a trailer on it.
The couple told selectmen they didn’t receive a tax bill for the $232 wrongly assessed to them. They said the first they heard of owing the money was through a lien notice.
The Reeds said the tax card in 2003 had another person’s name on it and a picture of a trailer that belonged to that person. Though the couple’s name also was on a portion of the tax card, it didn’t mention anything about their trailer.
Reed also told selectmen they were not asking for an abatement, they just wanted to get the valuation fixed on the tax records.
Robert Reed said the couple paid the reduced taxes for 2003 and also paid their 2004 taxes Wednesday, now that everything has been straightened out.
The couple’s trailer now is exempt from property taxes because of the state’s Homestead Exemption, which deducts $13,000 from the value of a primary residence
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