An anonymous complaint sent in an email to the New Orleans Office of Inspector General leads to the city revoking Homestead Exemption for three homes after an investigation discovers the homeowners had been deceased for years.
The Homestead Exemption is a property tax exemption for residential property owners. Under the Homestead Exemption, eligible homeowners in New Orleans can be exempt from paying property taxes on the first $75,000 of the home’s value and have a freeze on their property value assessment.
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The anonymous complaint prompted the OIG to investigate the three homes:
- 2134 Milan Street New Orleans, Homeowner: Roosevelt S. Winsey
- 2425 Delachaise Street New Orleans, Homeowner: Jocelyn F. Chatters
- 4030 Vendome Place New Orleans, Homeowner: Alice M. Uhde
An OIG report says, an online database of death certificates shows Winsey died in September 2013, Chatters died in January 2016, and Uhde died in December 2014.
The OIG report says all three homes continued to receive property tax exemption in the years after the homeowners’ deaths.
“As required by law in the event of an owner's passing, our office must remove the Homestead Exemption and Age Freeze issued to the subject property for the 2017 forward tax years,” the OIG report said.
As a result, the Assessor’s Office removed the homestead exemptions and the property assessment freeze for the three properties, from 2017 forward, as of August 25, 2020, said the report.
According to the Bureau of the Treasury, the three properties owe the City of New Orleans a total of $48,452.48 in additional property tax revenue.
The city says the Milan Street home owes $22,032.37, the Delachaise Street home owes $8,202.04, and the Vendome Place home owes $18,218.07.
The results of the OIG investigation comes after thousands of homeowners complained of soaring property tax assessments back in August of last year.
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