does a deck impact your taxes?!

someone mentioned that adding a deck to your house would increase your property tax. is this correct? does it do so if its on the ground floor? if the deck we are planning is freestanding of the house- like a detached patio, does it also count against square footage calculation? it is an "improvement" but its not the the actual home structure...

While I may be wrong, I believe that most structural improvements made to the home impacts the value and the taxes. I quickly looked online and the page for the Maplewood Tax Assessor list one of their missions as processing building permits.

Real property taxes are based on more than the square footage of your house. Putting in an in-ground swimming pool will impact your real property tax and it is not part of the structure of the house. Depending on size and materials, a patio may well impact your taxes as well. If this concerns you, you may want to discuss what you are considering with the appropriate town official.

I believe if you install a paver stone patio, but it's dry set, meaning no concrete, it won't effect your taxes as if you installed a fixed concrete slab, or used mortar on the stones. Those are considered fixed structures

Funny dano mentioned this. We're putting a patio in next month. It will be pavers on crushed concrete with polymeric sand at the paver joints. The mason told us since its not a permanent fixed structure it shouldn't affect our taxes. He also said town inspection is not needed.

ps - I remember he some see an increase whereas others don't.

you still need to a permit for the work if it wasn't there before..... you are increasing the lot coverage and that affects zoning...if you are over max lot coverage then its not allowed

I remember being told once upon a time that a deck that's attached to the house is considered part of the permanent structure and therefore taxable. A deck that is freestanding is not. But who knows if the person who told me that was correct?? Only way to know for sure is to call the town.

PeggyC said:
I remember being told once upon a time that a deck that's attached to the house is considered part of the permanent structure and therefore taxable. A deck that is freestanding is not. But who knows if the person who told me that was correct?? Only way to know for sure is to call the town.

If the new structure increases your assessment value, taxes will go up regardless, probably by less but up neverless.

Either way, a deck adds what? $15,000 to a home's value?

That's how much it might cost to build it, but will it have that great an impact on the home's value? I don't know, you'd have to ask some realtors. A deck really is wonderful usable space, though. I love ours. And I'm not sure I would consider buying a house that had neither patio nor deck.