Dr. Anne Mulhern

Several months ago I found out that the City of Lowell has been charging me for all sorts of amenities that the house I live in has never possessed. I’ve lived in this house for years, so that means I’ve paid the City of Lowell thousands of dollars in inflated property taxes. I will never get any of this money back.

If you haven’t checked your property assessment recently my advice is to do so immediately. You can go to City of Lowell Online Assessment Database and see for yourself whether or not the assessors have dreamed up whole bathrooms or other amenities that you might wish to possess in your house but never did.

If you find that the assessment of your property inflates your property value considerably, and you would rather not pay the same inflated amount next year as you did this year, call the Assessors office immediately at 978-674-4200 so that an assessor can come to your house and revise the amount. Once the assessments are finally certified at the end of the year, you’ve missed your chance to get the amount reduced for all of 2027.

What is this exorbitant property tax that you are paying?

Well, according to what I have heard, every year the City Council decides how much money it is going to require from property tax. That is part of the city budget and your elected City Councilors are deciding on that.

You, along with everybody else who is liable for these taxes, are assessed an amount based on the proportion of the assessed value of your property to the assessed value of all the properties in Lowell. You pay less if your property is assessed at a lower value because then the city bills you for a smaller amount of that pie it is ordering.

Of course, even if the assessed value of your property is reduced, you may end up paying more next year if the City Council decides to increase the total value of the property tax that it requires from all those liable for that kind of tax in Lowell, ie, if it orders a bigger pie.