Woman gets tax relief after years of taxation on phantom basement
By Matt Flener
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RAY COUNTY, Missouri (KMBC) — Teresa Blakeman will get property tax relief after nearly two decades of getting taxed for a basement she never had.
Blakeman recently discovered the mistake on her property tax assessments when shopping for home insurance.
Blakeman’s property tax records with the Ray County Assessor’s Office indicated a full basement to the insurance company.
But her home was built on a slab. She had never noticed since her taxes are taken out on her mortgage statement.
The assessor’s office sent out someone to verify and corrected the home’s value for this tax year.
Still, Blakeman wasn’t satisfied. She wanted even more relief.
So, she contacted KMBC 9 Investigates.
“I felt stuck, you know, where I go, what do I do?” she said. “This is not right. This is not fair.”
Ray County Assessor Linda Coleman, who took office in 2021, opened the books, did more research, and worked to find a creative solution within Missouri’s tax laws after a call from KMBC 9 Investigates. She and her staff had already started working on the case to research and make sure they had everything right.
Coleman said she and the collector are limited by state law on corrections for only the past three years.
On Wednesday, she agreed to freeze Blakeman’s home value through 2027, saving her roughly $1,000.
“I would be upset if something was assessed to my property that didn’t belong there,” Coleman said. “When we find the corrections, we try to do what we can to work with the collector and see, ‘What can we do about this?’”
Coleman said Blakeman’s case is a good reminder to check with your insurance company and your local property tax assessor to make sure all information on your property tax records are correct.
“I got just what justice I can get,” Blakeman said.
Blakeman is grateful for the help and encouraged every other taxpayer to verify their information.
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