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RTV North
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 13:58
Municipalities have not managed to process all objections to WOZ decisions from 2023 within the legal period. This must be done in the same year, with the possibility of an extension of six weeks. Now there are tens of thousands of objections still pending.
A WOZ assessment is the valuation of ‘immovable property’, i.e. a house, business premises or other building. A record number of objections were submitted last year, says Ruud Kathmann of the Valuation Chamber. This independently monitors the WOZ implementation. “Houses increased extremely last year by an average of 17 percent, so people were shocked and objected,” says Kathmann.
“In addition, residents were encouraged to object by property tax agencies who wanted to help.” Municipalities had too few staff to process the objections on time.
Double
In 2023, almost 725,000 objections were filed against WOZ values. A more than double compared to the previous year.
Most of it has been dealt with, says Kathmann. “We are well under a hundred thousand.” He cannot say what the exact number is.
Northern Tax Office
RTV North asked for specific figures from the Northern Tax Office, which collects municipal taxes for the municipalities of Groningen, Noordenveld and Eemsdelta. A total of 12,322 objections were submitted there, just under half of which came from WOZ agencies.
“In a normal year we receive around 4,200 objections,” says the spokesperson. Currently, 430 objection procedures are still being processed by the Northern Tax Office. The objections will be resolved in the coming weeks.
Consulting firms
You can submit an objection via the municipality, but it is also increasingly done via WOZ consultancy firms. Last year, the government took action against these agencies and imposed stricter rules. In this way, the Ministry of Finance wants to restrict companies that cost municipalities a lot of money.
If such an agency succeeds in making an objection to the WOZ decision, the municipality must pay a so-called legal costs allowance. These compensations vary per case, from hundreds to several thousand euros. The municipality does not have to pay this if people object themselves.
State Secretary Van Rij reduced the legal costs and Kathmann is already seeing the effects: “Last year, all agencies offered the service for free. Now we increasingly see that they charge money for it. I also see fewer advertisements.”
‘Valuation errors’
WOZ agencies were responsible for almost half of the objections last year, says Dirk-Jan Wolfert of consumer organization Vastelastenbond. The work of such an agency is important, he believes. “Confidence in the government is low and a critical intermediate layer reduces the distance between citizens and government.”
The measures against the WOZ agencies are therefore not good according to Wolfert. “The agencies owe their right to exist to the valuation errors made by municipalities. If these consultancy agencies are no longer there, there will no longer be any parties that keep the municipality on its toes.”
Care
With more objections than ever, both through consultancy firms and directly with the municipality, the Valuation Chamber does not find it surprising that many municipalities have not met the legal deadline. “We worked very hard to remove the pile. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out, but the municipalities did a good job while maintaining quality,” says Kathmann.
“Of course we think they should be ready on time,” he continues. “But we think care is even more important. Although that is not a license for municipalities to take it easy.”
Six weeks
The Valuation Chamber has also told municipalities that the settlement of objections should not be at the expense of determining the new WOZ value for this year. That seems to have worked, says Kathmann.
The Valuation Chamber expects objectors to receive clarity about their submission in the next six weeks. Just in time, because the new WOZ values will also be announced these weeks. Kathmann expects that the number of objectors will be considerably lower this year, because home values have risen less.
2024-02-27 12:58:16
#Tens #thousands #WOZ #objections #resolved
