In West Brabant, 14,000 households may object to the WOZ value of their home this year. There have never been so many. They believe that the value has been overestimated and that, among other things, they have to pay too much property tax. The number of objections is almost twice as high as last year, which is why the tax authorities in West Brabant are sounding the alarm.
Director Peter Stoffelen of the West Brabant Tax Cooperation fears that it will take longer to collect municipal and water board taxes. The 12 municipalities in West Brabant and the Brabant Delta Water Board could run into problems as a result. The director therefore raises the alarm in political The Hague.
The West Brabant Tax Cooperation has its hands full dealing with the thousands of objections. The 50 employees brace themselves and Stoffelen is worried: “The workload here was so high last year that people fell over. Too many hours, no holidays, working evenings and weekends. Absenteeism was 17 percent. That’s why they now have to stop working on time and ensure that they also have an ordinary private life.”
Selling prices at record highs
The market value of houses in particular has risen enormously in recent years. On the reference date of January 1, 2022, sales prices were at a record high. “House prices and therefore also the WOZ value rose by an average of 17 percent in one year. A house worth 400,000 euros suddenly became worth almost 70,000 euros more to us,” the director calculates.
But in February last year, war broke out in Ukraine and house prices even fell slightly. As a result, many taxpayers now look at their WOZ value with an extra frown.
Advertising campaigns
Companies capitalize on this. “In advertising campaigns they call on people to object to the WOZ valuation free of charge,” Stoffelen explains. “If an appraisal turns out to be even 1000 euros too high, then these companies have a case and they will receive at least 250 euros in legal costs. They earn their money with that.”
With thousands of objections in West Brabant alone, these companies raise a lot of money. But according to Stoffelen, there is another problem: “To deal with all these objections, the judiciary is bogged down. If an appeal is lodged against a lost case, it can take up to two years before it comes to court again. And also that pays off, because then the agencies are entitled to compensation due to this enormous waiting time.”
‘Please help’
Two years ago, Stoffelen already warned in a letter to the Ministry of Finance and the Association of Netherlands Municipalities about the increasing number of objections. “But nothing has been done with that, so I am now sending a letter to the State Secretary.”
Stoffelen prefers people to lodge an objection directly with his West Brabant Tax Cooperation, via a QR code on the assessment notice. “We want to help people. You know more about your house than we do and if we’ve made a mistake, we’ll correct it,” he says.