177 of 177 successful tax appeals in 2019! YOU can help reach mobile home owners in Chester Co. in 2020
Chester Co. Mobile Home Tax Reassessment Project
by Rachel Houseman
Chester County Managing Attorney
(Dec. 2019)
In 2018 Randy and Debbie Blough, volunteers at the Lord’s Pantry of Downingtown and the Honey Brook Food Pantry, realized that many of the clients living in mobile homes were having difficulty paying their large property tax bills. The Bloughs realized that the mobile homes were being taxed based upon a value of the homes which greatly exceeded their actual values.
This problem was created because mobile home owners pay property taxes like any other homeowner. But unlike houses built on land, mobile homes do not appreciate in value. In fact, as soon as the home is placed on a property, it has lost a significant amount of value. A mobile home continues to depreciate in value every year thereafter. Unless a mobile home owner appeals the home’s assessed value, it will be taxed as if it is increasing in value over time at the same rate as other homes within the county.
The Bloughs filed property tax appeals for 22 mobile home clients in 2018 and were successful in all appeals. In 2019, LASP took part in a pilot project in partnership with the United Way of Chester County, the Lord’s Pantry, and the Honey Brook Food Pantry to help mobile home owners appeal their property taxes on their overvalued homes.
Vital to the success of this project was the hard work of volunteer attorneys and the Chester County Paralegal Association. The paralegals staffed many of the outreaches, which were held near where the clients live. This project successfully appealed 177 mobile home tax assessments.
The pilot project revealed that on average, a mobile home owner is paying nearly 400 percent more in taxes than the amount they should owe. Mobile home owners comprise a population who face significant and often insurmountable obstacles to successfully appeal their homes’ value. Our county’s neediest families have been paying thousands of dollars in taxes they should never have owed. These families can now breathe easier and have greater opportunities to provide food, medicine, stable housing, and other necessities to their households.
The work done in 2019 has only scratched the surface. In total this project reached 177 homeowners who were paying on average nearly $1,000 more in property taxes than they would owe if their homes were properly assessed. The 177 homeowners will save a combined $171,580.09 every year, beginning in 2020. However, there are nearly 3,600 occupant-owned mobile homes throughout Chester County.
The program partners’ goal is to assist 1,000 owner-occupied homes next year, and continue every year after that until the system is fixed. We can’t do this without the assistance of volunteers. LASP is asking that Chester County law firms support and encourage their paralegals to participate in this unique opportunity to help correct an injustice. Partner organizations in the Mobile Home Tax Appeal Project already have started scheduling outreach events for 2020. See below for how to volunteer. More dates and locations will be added.
Get involved: Sign up to volunteer in 2020!
Nine outreach dates are already scheduled for January through March! Volunteer sign-up is taking place at: http://bit.ly/34Rf74i. Whether you're an attorney, paralegal, student or community member, if you'd like to learn more about volunteer opportunities for the Mobile Tax Appeal Project, please contact Brian Doyle, Staff Attorney and Chester Co. Pro Bono Coordinator, at 610-436-4510 x211 or bdoyle@lasp.org.
INSPIRATION for the Mobile Home Tax Appeal Project
Alfred Lubrano's story about Randy and Debbie Blough's work on mobile home tax appeals appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in August 2018: http://bit.ly/339uMeJ. Staff at the United Way of Chester County read the story and reached out to LASP to provide legal assistance.
Other resources
United Way of Chester County's website page on the project
Note:
A version of this story appeared in the Chester County Bar Association's 4th Quarter 2019 issue of New Matter. Click here for the article. It also was published in LASP’s December 2019 e-news: https://conta.cc/2QklTKE.