town wants almost $1000, i have almost no money, my mom said I should go to town

[May81DeLorean]

the town sent me a bill for almost $1000 for the tax for a year and I barely have any money and my mom said a few days ago that I should go to the town and get the amount lowered

the town said I cannot argue the tax on the car, instead I have to argue the value of the car

now i have to go and get an appeal form

the town is valuing the car at about $32,000, the town gets values from a NADA Retail book

the town said i first have to pay the full amount before appealing, the car is ruining my life, every week something else breaks on it, the little windows no longer work, the antenna stopped working which ruins the radio although it doesnt matter much because only 1 speaker was working, the cooling fans dont work so I cant come to complete stops anywhere - i have to keep the car in constant motion, the car is dripping all kinds of fluids everywhere, the air vents dont work and there is a constant hissing sound coming from the near the radio, the interior lights dont work, the door locks dont work, i found a huge mouse nest in the car, i have to drive with the Heat on full blast because i am worried about overheating the engine, temperatures inside the car in summer in summer with the Heat going full blast can approach 120 degrees, i think i said that the windows no longer work, the fan top speed notch no longer works in the #4 spot, and the fuel gauge doesnt work either so i have to drive around with a poland springs water bottle full of gasoline next to me, i have only driven the car 1 day this year, between tax and insurance it is about $1500 a year and I only drove the car 10 miles this year, it costs about $150 a mile to drive the car

and now the town said that if I appeal, i have to bring the car with me for a town tax inspection at town hall

the town said i can present appraisals and evidence and photographs and reports for the condition of the car to get the value of it down

so i need to take pictures of the problems the car has, there is rust on the frame and i read that there are some important bolts near the rear of the car that need to be replaced or else the wheels could come flying off and those bolts havent been replaced, and there is rust near the front of the frame and rust on the back of the frame, i'm scared to drive the car more than 25mph, i have never been on the highway in it

NADA value quality: (low:$17,800) (average:$32,000) (high:$52,000), the town automatically thinks all cars are average in town

my dad said I should not go because he is worried that the town hall people might think the car is special and increase the value of it up around $40,000 and then my mom said instead that I should go and find out how town hall operates and that I should go and show them pictures, she said some guy with a 1985 camaro doesnt pay much tax and he lives a few towns away

i think town hall wants to have a hearing on the car and i have to go down during a special hearing and show the car in September to town hall assessors, things have gotten real bad here, oh yeah and the car had a flat tire and I had to take the wheel off a few weeks ago and bring it to a tire shop and he said the wheel is damaged and he put tar around the bead point because air was going out the bead, i have only driven the car about 10 miles one day this year

and if the car doesnt start in September and i cant bring it to town hall, then i automatically lose my case

and the fluids keep coming out, brown fluid and green fluids ,they have been coming out for 2 years now and i dont understand how fluids can keep coming out if i am not replacing them, but the fluids keep coming out on the ground

but in the september hearing, i have to bring lots of evidence with me and the car must be on site also, but i think the car is too low down and the people wont be able to look underneath it in the town hall parking lot, so i have to bring photos with me of the rust and fluids so i have to find a place where to print big pictures of all the problems

things have gotten really bad and then the lights on back of the car wouldnt work anymore, there was powder all over the light bulb joints and my brake lights and blinkers wouldnt work and i was worried somebody would smash into the back of the car, i put new bulbs in and it didn't fix the problem

the state DMV was supposed to inspect the car before giving me a license plate because the car is over 25 years old but when i went to the State inspection center, it was near closing time and instead the guys at the Inspection Center took out their camera phones and took pictures of the car with the doors up on it from different angles and they said they didnt want to inspect it and they told me i could go inside and register the car anyways, so now it is only the Town that wants to see the car for tax reasons

and then the door got stuck and i couldnt get out of the car and i had to crawl out the other side of the car and i kicked the mirror off the windshield while sliding over and the mirror glue stripped a few layers of glass off of the windshield when it came off, so the windshield is close to have a hole in it where the mirror used to be, the mirrow now hangs off a bracket connected to the passenger sun visor

there is also a terrible smell in the car, i think the mice nest must be the cause of it and the mice must have gone to the bathroom in my car and i cant open the windows so it is tough to drive in it and the passenger door wont properly close and i am scared of the passenger door opening up when driving, and then all of a sudden when it was cold out a few months ago a mouse was in our living room, we never had a mice problem in the house before, and they might be blaming me for the mice thinking that the mice came from the car and i had to go to lowes and buy a glue trap and put the glue down because i cant use the regular spring style mouse trap because when a spring trap is set it must be placed down fast and i dislocated my right shoulder 2 years ago and it never healed properly and i think tendons or something are damaged, so i cant make sudden movements with my right hand so i put down glue traps instead

i looked at the fuses and some of them have melted and the little black box is partially melted

the only way i can argue my case to the town is to take photographs of it, do you think the rust will be easily visible in photographs??? i also think the frame might be crimpled like a Ruffles potato chip near the front wheel, because the drivers side frame has a bend in it and there is no matching bend in the frame on the passenger side of the car in the same spot

and i dont know if the doors are waterproof, so i have to pray that it doesnt rain in September because the car has never been in the rain before and i have no way of knowing if the doors leak, maybe that could be where the smell is coming from - maybe it is mold instead of the mice

i have to get under the car and take pictures of the frame for the town, i cant afford to get the car appraised somewhere, i think taking pictures is the easiest thing to do at this point, what i need though is i must create a Report of all of the problems, the town would like to have a Report, has anyone ever made a Report of their car before and is there a blank Report Form I can download, like a big checklist box of things that could be wrong??

[Michael]

What is this "town" you speak of(like 25 times)?

[SS Spoiler]

wow....

[WHO1DMC]

Ya boy what a tax.
When I registered my car they wanted like $1300 but then the lady said if you go collector $200 and some change and your done.
No Brainer there.

But never heard of this type of a tax or intrusion from a town.

[DaraSue]

and the fluids keep coming out, brown fluid and green fluids ,they have been coming out for 2 years now and i dont understand how fluids can keep coming out if i am not replacing them, but the fluids keep coming out on the ground

I really hope I'm reading that wrong and you haven't just been letting your car leak antifreeze/oil/trans fluid for 2 years without replacing it. Leaks generally don't stop on their own and if the reason they stop is because you're out of those fluids, you've got a much bigger problem on your hands...

It sounds like the car is giving you serious financial and emotional distress. From your mention of your parents I assume you're fairly young. Maybe it's time to sell it and then wait to get another until you're at a better place in your life to care for it. As long as you haven't been driving without oil/coolant for 2 years you'd probably get a decent price for it even if it's a fixer-upper.

[David T]

Sounds like the tax is the least of your problems. If you can't afford to fix the car up and use it then why are you trying to pay the tax? From the tone of your post it sounds like you want to find a way out. Put the car up for sale. That is the best way to determine the value.

[Ron]

Is this GA Ad Valorem tax?

[May81DeLorean]

Ya boy what a tax.
When I registered my car they wanted like $1300 but then the lady said if you go collector $200 and some change and your done.
No Brainer there.

But never heard of this type of a tax or intrusion from a town.

Yeah, the state charged me $2000 to register the car two years ago for sales tax, $100 for registration, and now the town wants $1000 every year for the town tax. And this was after I spent $500 to transport the car here, and $400 each year for insurance, almost $5000 in two years just on fees, taxes and stuff.

and the worst part is, the car is missing stuff, i found out that the car is missing some factory recall items in the front end, so i may take pictures of that for the town to try and get the value down.

I don't have many tools to fix the car, there is oil and grime all over the rear frame where the engine is. this is what I have below in the picture:

I read on here that the car can be taken apart like an Oreo cookie, that the top of the car will come off and show the frame and engine. I need to have a car lift because the car is very low

I'm trying to make a checklist of all the parts of the Car, so I can note which areas need work, so I can give it to the town, the Town wants documentation in the next few weeks

IMG_20170121_132540.jpg

[Michael]

the-town-532756a26c353.jpg

[Alex Brooks]

the-town-532756a26c353.jpg

Register it in a village without "The Town Tax"

I thought it was bad Oregon raised our registration fees to 105 bucks over the 85 dollars for two years. Does not matter what the car is or value at least.


also I'm so confused as to what I just read.