Michigan Tax Assessor Attempts Interior Home Inspections

when someone comes to your door you can let them in or not but the people in Davidson Township felt they had no choice when it came to their tax assessor made her intention clear in this letter McLaughlin didn't want a tax assessor in his home when he declined the appointment my taxes went up it's not that John had anything to hide he has made no improvements in the home and the two years he's lived there it was the principle well I'm a former military member and I signed up to protect the Constitution and I know that's a violation of my Fourth Amendment right nearby dick Reese didn't want a tax assessor in his home if you're gonna say you got the ceramic tile on your floor and the porch that's not on the record and you got ceramic tile in your bathroom that's not on the record they take the hard-nose on this and it's in a third way and that's the only way it'll be the township says it gets its authority to go inside homes from the Michigan State Tax Commission in 2010 it's an all municipal tax assessor's this memo saying local units are encouraged to annually inspect a minimum of 20% of the parcels each year Davidson Township took that to mean going inside your house so if they have a finished basement you assume I have a finished basement if John McLaughlin wants to know why his property taxes went up he only has to look across the street according to the Assessor of 1200 inspections last year 308 taxpayers denied entry 459 had changes in their assessments what is instead of challenging those assessments taxpayers went straight to the township board the board felt their pain was extremely I didn't know until my friends called me that night member suspended inspections eventually ending them but the question on whether a Michigan tax inspector can come into your home is open under the Freedom of Information Act the Mackinac Center requested a review of Correspondence on the issue between local tax departments and the state the state demanded 2860 dollars in fees until government finds more ways to cut its expenses it's going to find more ways to get more money from taxpayers that's why getting inside your home to find more things to tax is so attractive but legally it's questionable the Fourth Amendment protects a person's home you generally need a warrant go in there so an inspector would be able to come to the outside of your house to an area called the curtilage and essentially that's the area right about where you can start seeing inside the windows and they can come up to that point but if they actually look inside the house and they're violating the Fourth Amendment and need a warrant to look inside the fact that your neighbor might have finished their basement it doesn't mean that you do it so unless they have a suspicion or a reason for believing that you've done it maybe they talk to the electrician then then they can maybe get a warrant and come in but until such time as they actually see it they can't charge you more for it

Channel: Mackinac Center

Views: 617,971

Rating: 4.7654281 out of 5

Keywords: Search And Seizure (Legal Subject), Fourth Amendment (Constitutional Amendment), Property Rights, Tax Assessment

Id: 8GqSzKqlODQ

Length: 4min 14sec (254 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 07 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

haha wow is that illegal. good on them for fighting it, there's no way that will fly in a court.