Sarasota retiree challenges increase in home's taxable value tied to new roof

Sarasota retiree Joseph McCarthy described feeling "cheated" out of protections in Florida's Save Our Homes law at a mid-December hearing before a special magistrate for Sarasota County's Value Adjustment Board.

That law, passed in 1992 through a voter referendum on amending the state constitution, capped increases in assessed values on homesteaded property at 3% per year.

Yet McCarthy found a 12% increase in his mailbox from the local property appraiser's office this summer, with the large increase attributed to the roughly $60,000 cost to replace a tile roof on his Sarasota County home.

That increase above the Save Our Homes cap could impact any Sarasota County resident who replaces a roof because of how the Sarasota County Property Appraiser's Office interprets state law. In recent years, home owners have been forced to replace roofs earlier and earlier as struggling insurance companies pulled back coverage in the Sunshine State.

“I’m an 80-year-old resident of Sarasota and I have a pension I received in 1994 and that pension today is still frozen at the same dollar amount," he told the magistrate. "I don’t have any expectation that you are going to fix that for me, but that is a condition that I exist in this town and I expect to be provided with the protections of Save Our Homes."

After McCarthy and his wife Irene replaced the tile roof on their 3,125-square-foot home in Serenoa Lakes in 2022, he was outraged to see his next year's tax notice with such a large increase in assessed value.

The couple bought the lot on the property south of Clark Road about 20 years ago.

Through the years a wide gap between the market value and the taxable value has grown because of the Save Our Homes law, resulting in significantly lower property taxes. Still, the extra increase frustrated McCarthy.

A mediation session with the Sarasota County Property Appraiser's office after McCarthy filed an appeal of his property's 2023 valuation led to a reduction in the taxable value to a 7% year-over-year increase after assessors accounted for the value of the removed roof, McCarthy said.

Still, he doesn't believe they should increase it at all above the 3% set out in Florida's constitution.

"My overriding concern here is that I believe I'm being cheated out of my protections under Save Our Homes," he said. "I put an exact replacement, returning to new condition that it was in; I did nothing more than bring that roof back to its original condition."

Sarasota County Property Appraiser policies differ from others

While Save Our Homes does prevent increases due solely to market appreciation, another paragraph in the state statutes regulating how property appraisers must do their job requires any "changes, additions, or improvements" to be assessed at full market value each year.

The Herald-Tribune highlighted this issue in early October after completing a survey of Charlotte, Manatee, DeSoto, Hillsborough and Pinellas property appraisers' offices. Only Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst viewed a roof replacement on par with other capital improvement projects like adding a room or remodeling a home.

"Our attorney has told us how to interpret the statute and we pride ourselves in following the law," Furst said in the fall. "When the law says the property appraiser may, we always go to the side of the taxpayer. In this case, it says shall and that really, the word shall, doesn’t give me any leeway."

But neighboring counties' property appraisers consider roof replacements to be home maintenance, not a capital improvement.

Furst inherited that policy, he has said, noting the office has viewed roof replacement as a qualifying change or improvement that must be assessed at just market value due to state statute for at least the past 15 years.

Tod Abrahamson, a deputy property appraiser, told the special magistrate Sarasota County appraisers view roof replacements as a change and an improvement, making it outside the scope of the Save Our Homes cap.

"We believe the meaning of the words change and improvement are quite clear, a new roof regardless of previous construction material, represents both a change and an improvement," he said at the hearing.

McCarthy's attorney brought up the issue of cast iron pipes in the Pinecrest neighborhood, pointing out that replacement of cast iron pipes could also be viewed as a change or improvement. However, the appraiser's office does not increase taxable value in those cases.

Abrahamson noted during the hearing that the office focused mainly on improvements and changes that affect market value, pointing to new roofs, bathroom and kitchen remodels and new windows as likely changes or additions that would result in taxable value adjustments.

He said the appraiser's office doesn't have evidence that replacing cast iron pipes results in greater market value to properties.

McCarthy argued at the hearing that if he's being hit with a big increase due to the new roof in 2022, the appraiser's office should have depreciated the value of his roof over the years as well.

Deputy Appraiser Brian Loughrey noted the office does include a depreciation calculation on structures, but that because homes in recent years have increased in value more than the yearly depreciation, the taxpayer would not see the depreciation in taxable value.

The special magistrate will provide a written recommendation to the Value Adjustment Board in the next few weeks with the board meeting sometime in the spring to decide the matter. That decision can be appealed to circuit court.

Sarasota Republican State Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, filed a bill that would clarify the issue. Her bill states that "repair and maintenance of specified property is not a change, addition, or improvement" and also would provide county property appraisers discretion on how they charge interest in some inadvertent homestead exemption violations.

Bill Furst has previously noted he would meet with McFarland to see if the Legislature could provide guidance on this topic. Loughrey said the bill was a result of meetings with Furst.

McCarthy doesn't see a need for the bill, given how other property appraisers have applied the law.

"They have no need of state legislation to do the right thing now," he said. "If you replace a roof with a like-kind of roofing material there is no increase in appraised value in" surrounding counties.

Previous coverage: Forced by insurance to replace roofs, Sarasota homeowners can expect higher tax bills, too

More: Let's clear up the confusion about Sarasota County property appraisals

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Increase in taxable value due to roof replacement challenged by Sarasota retiree