This post is specifically for residents in Arizona but who knows if this scam is not going on elsewhere throughout the country. A company called “Property Tax Review Board” or PTRB for short is sending out letters promising homeowners that they can help homeowners reduce their property tax bills for the 2009 tax year for a fee of $189.
Don’t do it – it is a scam!
“These letters are designed to look as if they are coming from a government agency, but are nothing more than an attempt at charging Arizona residents for something they can easily do on their own for free,” Matthew Fehling, BBB President/CEO said.
The letters state that due to the drop in property values, residents need to file again for a reassessment of their 2009 property taxes. However, according to the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office the deadline to file for an administrative review for a possible reduction for the 2009 tax year expired in April 2008.
What that simply means is that you will be throwing your money away. So best advice is to simply throw the letters away or if you want to throw your money away for a service you can do yourself for free, send it to me. 
Postscript: If you look at the comments below, PTRB has defended their action and has indicated that the service they are offering would be for the 2010 tax year. While it is not a scam to offer a “pay-for” service to appeal a homeowner’s property tax assessment, even though the homeowner can do it on their own, I took issue with the fact that the letter PTRB mailed out was not clear on the tax year they’d appeal and suggested that future mailings should be more clear.
So, my original rant was based on the fact that the letter led me to believe they were offering a pay-for service to appeal my 2009 property tax assessment, of which the deadline to appeal has expired.
If in fact PTRB will file an appeal for 2010, then what they are offering is not a scam. However I still feel they should be more forthright in their advertising. Enough said.
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RE: PTRB A red flag goes up when you cannot spell a simple word as Their or There. You spell it Thier!You should proof read your spelling when requesting homeowners hard earned money! Are you from another country? or are you just too lazy and greedy to proof read first?
FYI
I e-mailed good ‘ol Jerry Brown (AG State of CA) re this and got a letter in the mail today 11.12.09. Of course they say all such companies are scam because you can get the service free through the assessors office. On the end of the letter, however, is this infor which might be useful to others.
IF YOU ARE A VICTIM OF THIS SCAM, you can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Public Inquiry Unit at http://www.ag.ca.gov/consumers or by writing to POB 944255 Sacramento, CA94244
dale
This is happening in California! And contrary to what PTRB posted on this blog, there is NO BOX ON EITHER THE ENVELOPE OR THE DOCUMENT THAT STATES THAT THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY.
Visit the following website to see how big of a scam they are:
http://www.ucan.org/blog/money_privacy/consumer_scam/property_tax_reassessment_scam?page=2
I’m in CA and those thieves stole my $179 in 2008.I’m so pissed! I’m trying to get a refund but at this point, I don’t care about my refund as much but I would enjoy seeing them cought and put to jail!!! This is disguisting!!! DO NOT SEND YOUR MONEY!!!
Yes, It is in California too the envelope looks like the one you get for property taxes. I already sent my tax adjustment but I opened it anyway and realize it was a phony one, that is when I research in the internet. Be careful you don’t need to pay anything to adjust your taxes I did it for free. I hope someone catches this people.
To whom it may concern at HOMEOWNER PROPERTY TAX REVIEW BOARD
Tax Reduction Review Division P.O. Box 41558 Los Angeles, CA. 90041-0558
I’m writing this letter in response to a letter that I’ve received from you last week.
I’d like to express my anger towards you and your likes.
Though you are not, I see you as nothing more then a common thief and see you as one of the reasons why we have 400 new laws written each and every year.
Laws are written because of people like you who go through their lives taking advantage of people. The laws are to stop your kind. The cost and cumbersome that comes with lawmaking would be greatly reduced if you just didn’t exist in our world.
My Son and Daughter in-law fell for your “snare trap” tactics and I’ve taken it very personally. Not only do I expect you not to get away with this, but I intend to seek out a way of stopping you from the continuation of this thievery from the unknowing. Even if it means that ANOTHER law’s to be written.
In all fairness I will say that you’ve sent a legal letter. However, you’ve disguised the letter to appear as if the letter’s a formal document from the Assessor’s office and that is trickery. This is what I base my claim on, trickery.
As if life’s not hard enough for everyone in this world. You come along and pull a fast-one on my kids. My kids who are barely making it from pay check to pay check and you bilk-um out of the better part of two hundred dollars.
You sicken me. GET OUT-A TOWN!
Is there anything we can do about this or is there anything in the works at this time being done about it?
Thanks for the info. I just got one of these. I’m in the Los Angeles area.
it is a scam! if they can do it for $189 to save your property tax and time, it may still worth to do it even you can do by yourself, the problem is I don’t think they can do it, I am in Los Angeles, I brought my house 16 years ago, my house worth about 1 million now even it is down last couple of years, I am paying the property tax for about half million of the value, yet their letter claim they can propose assessment to $32,4000, below the value I brough in 1993,are you kidding, if it is not a scam, what is the scam.
I just received my official property tax bill and a very official looking letter from Homeowners Property Tax Review Board asking fo $189.00 processing fee to help reduce property tax as Prop 8 & 13 1978. I was uneasy of course because of fee being requested to process the application. I checked internet and found you. What do I do to help close these thiefs down. Hopefully before they fool elderly and unsuspecting individuals.
My 84-year-old grandmother just received this. With her bad eye sight she thought it was legit bc it looked just like her tax bill. I googled the company name and found this site. I’m glad she waited for me to look into this. She barely has any money left after paying her property taxes. This scam makes my blood boil to think of all those people out there who actually fall for this. The elderly, people where English isn’t their first language, and those who just don’t know any better… What made me laugh is that they valued her house at 70k. Its been appraised at over 500k. And, their “estimated savings” was almost the same as their fee.
@Mel R – > We all ought to send the $189 to you for helping us all out and exposing this problem. <
Now there’s a novel idea!
Thanks for the info – I just received letter from PTRB and went on line to check it out and found this site.
We all ought to send the $189 to you for helping us all out and exposing this problem.
Thanks for putting out sites like this – and who says the internet is not being used for good purposes!!
MRH
Thanks for the 411
Shame on them! Times are tough as it is .. and these crooks want to hurt the honest.
LA Co has them listed as a scam. I e-mail the state AG office to see if they are taking action, as Arizona is, but haven’t heard back from them.
I’ve retained the paperwork it that would do anyone any good but I think the only thing they could go down for would be ‘intent to defraud’. But my fields medicine, not law.
Anyone who has dealt with them should probably keep all their paperwork in one place just in case!
dale
I am also in Los Angeles and every year since I purchased my home, I’ve been receiving the same type of letters. Per an article i read in the Los Angeles Times with Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach stated, “It’s a scam. They’re trying to make you think the letter comes from my office so you’ll pay them to do something you could do yourself for free.” It is also noted in the Los Angeles County Tax Assessor’s website: “There is no reason to pay for a review that will be done for free.”
@PTRB & Mike Liville – Call it what you want, most of everyone posting here will still call it a scam.
scam n. – A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle.
Well here’s another person from California that just got this. The only thing that’s different in its appearance from the regular tax bill is there’s no two payment option. There’s nothing on the outside of the envelope that says ‘this is not a government document’ so I guess they only did that in Arizona after you found them out. There’s also no telephone number to contact them. In print in the section that you must send back with your money it clearly states that ‘This authorization is for property tax year 2009′ Sorry guys our filing date has past too, and we can file for a review for free as far as I’m aware. The only good thing is it does have the assessors ID number and I need to contact them because I haven’t received the actual bill, so thanks for that anyway, but even that is not worth the 189.
Michael McConville also has a profile set up on LinkedIn – here’s the link:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-mcconville/9/152/9
If he is truly the owner of PTRB, we need the FBI involved in this Interstate scam case. Anyone with me?
Damn, I should’ve went to this site first before I sent my money to them. Is there any way to press charges to get our money back?
Are there any attorneys out there looking for a nice class action lawsuit?
If only we can find where their office is and the name of their owner, we can go get em, right?
beubank@msn.com
Hi Good Folks,
I will be sending this “mailer” to a local radio
channel who will pursue if it’s legitimate or not.
This may have an out of country origin..real scam
like set up. Or it’s erally X-MAS or there is a tooth
fairy. Let’s let Ken and John get em.
Lou
p.s.this is my SECOND notice…ha
PTRB CONTACT PHONE AND ADDRESS ARE SCAM TOO
CALL THEIR NO. AND LISTEN IT!
THIS IS TOTALLY SCAM!
OK, folks. Here’s the thing. The Arizona Atty Genl. is suing. Here’s the link, dated August of this year. http://www.kpho.com/houseandhome/20321829/detail.html
This says that the President/CEO of PTRB is one Michael McConville, of Simi Valley, Calif.
If you go to http://www.zabasearch.com, you can see his address in Simi Valley and the names of his family members.
Then if you go to http://www.zillow.com, you can see a pic of his house, which is surprisingly middle class, especially since he seems to be raking in the bucks.
Maybe we should all start writing to him and to his family at home and letting him know how displeased we are with his company.
It’s a more legal action than his scam.
@PTRB: There is NO DISCLAIMER on the outside of the envelope I received. Nor is there any indication on the enclosed form that this is NOT an official document. It all looks just too damn real. You guys have a lot of nerve. Sending to my atty genl. now.
Yours has an 800 number? Mine has no number at all. This is the most blatant scam I’ve seen in years.
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