Property tax assessment question

I bought my house in a tax auction for $21k, and at the time it was assessed at 66k. I didn't do anything about that because I knew that once I did the work to redo the house the value would be that much or more. I got permits for all the work I did, and the final inspections were done a year to a year and a half ago. I added a bedroom and a half bath, a new covered porch, and a 16x32 workshop. None of these are shown on the inventory page for the property on the county website. The building inspector and tax assessor of 40 years retired at the end of 2022, just after doing the final inspections on the house and workshop, and the new inspector issued the permit and inspected the porch in 2023. The new assessor is the new inspector's father, and both live and mostly work about 30 miles west of here.

I get a notice each spring telling my of my assessment and when the greivance day is. Today I got one that says my assessment is going to 74k, but the inventory still has not been updated and I would have thought the assessment should be more than that. I am wondering if I should go to the town and ask if they are overlooking the changes I made, and are undercharging me. I'm not opposed to continuing to pay lower taxes, in general, but I wonder if I should ask them, and if I can be held liable for back taxes if someone wakes up someday and notices that I have been under-assessed for a while. I'll be grateful for any advice.

 

You are not trained or paid to be an inspector or assessor. Let them do their job, if it benefits you with lower taxes.

 

I had a similar jump in assessed value a couple of years back, and after checking with the county, turns out they flagged my garage as newly improved when I just repainted it. I filed a review and it got adjusted down. Reminded me of dealing with cross-border invoices using vat reverse charge—looks complicated at first but sometimes it’s just a labeling issue.