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+--- Thread: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? (/showthread.php?tid=200386)
treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - space-time - 01-14-2017
wife is browsing channels on TV and I saw on Animal Planet some treehouses for adults that are awesome... bathroom, kitchen, real beds, everything. seriously, in a nicer climate you could live year round in one of those.
Question is: do they charge you real estate taxes if you have an awesome treehouse like those?
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - JoeH - 01-14-2017
Yes, in most cases they do charge real estate taxes on that kind of tree house.
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - cbelt3 - 01-14-2017
If you get permits for living space, you will pay taxes on living space. If you don't get permits, it's not living space, AND it's subject to being torn down.
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - Racer X - 01-14-2017
Unless they don't see it for 8 years, and you built it according to building code. They you get grandfathered through, and just taxed.
My detached garage got grandfathered.
HOWEVER, now they use sat imagery to compare whats there now vs what there is record of.
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - mattkime - 01-14-2017
my guess was that it would be taxed if it added to the value of the property.
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - GuyGene - 01-14-2017
In my county, dagnabbedit, they'll tax just about anything. And, they come around OFTEN looking for anything that they can add. :argh:
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - davester - 01-14-2017
Racer X wrote:
Unless they don't see it for 8 years, and you built it according to building code. They you get grandfathered through, and just taxed.
My detached garage got grandfathered.
HOWEVER, now they use sat imagery to compare whats there now vs what there is record of.
What's this about 8 years? That sounds like an urban legend.
Also, there's no way satellite imagery would work for that due to the low resolution. They probably use aerial photography such as that on google maps.
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - Dennis S - 01-14-2017
Make sure it complies with everything before you build it.
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - NewtonMP2100 - 01-14-2017
.....what WOOD......y'all do......?????
Re: treehouse... do you pay real estate taxes? - Racer X - 01-14-2017
davester wrote:
[quote=Racer X]
Unless they don't see it for 8 years, and you built it according to building code. They you get grandfathered through, and just taxed.
My detached garage got grandfathered.
HOWEVER, now they use sat imagery to compare whats there now vs what there is record of.
What's this about 8 years? That sounds like an urban legend.
Also, there's no way satellite imagery would work for that due to the low resolution. They probably use aerial photography such as that on google maps.
I checked with the county. Also talked to someone doing a neighborhood walk through for the King County Tax Assessment Board. He saw the garage down the alley from the end of the block, and asked if he could enter my yard. We talked a bit, and he told be if it had been there for more than 8 years, the county couldn't legally do anything unless they deemed it unsafe. It had been there for at least 10 years at that point. I had owned the house that long, and the former owner had built it. My taxes went up some, and the garage is grandfathered through in King Co, WA.
Now, when the house next door tears down their garage during a remodel pre-sale, I need to throw up a fence fast, and reclaim the corner of my lot. There is no easement on my title, so I will just take it back and give the brush off to the new owners.
And I can assure you that commercially available sat images can easily see an oversized 2 car garage. I worked for the company making many of those satellites, and I was their photographer. I've seen their output.