- March 16, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Last year, the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office received about 30 applications for a tax rebate due to catastrophic damage from Hurricane Idalia in 2023.
After three hurricanes in 2024, the number of applications is currently over 1,000 with more to come.
“We’re at a volume we’ve never seen before,” said Scott Tussing, director of Public Service and Exemptions for Manatee County. “We changed our process midstream to centralize it into a survey people can file online.”
The rebate only applies to residences that were uninhabitable for at least 30 days.
However, owners of commercial and tangible personal property that was damaged are also encouraged to fill out a survey because the office needs to be aware of damages in order to properly evaluate for 2025.
For homes that met the criteria of being uninhabitable for at least 30 days in 2024, the survey will automatically submit an application for a tax refund on the homeowner’s behalf.
The survey is available on the Property Appraiser’s website, which makes the process easier for both citizens and staff.
About 700 rebate applications have arrived by mail. The rest have been delivered by email or in person. Staff has to go through each one to upload the data, so citizens uploading the data themselves is far more efficient.
Tussing said he has no “earthly idea” how many people still need to file for a rebate, but the county's staff members are doing all they can to spread the word to property owners that the deadline is approaching.
There is no provision in the statute for late applications. They must be submitted by March 3 in order to receive a refund.
Not only hurricane damages are eligible. Fires, tornados and structural collapses are categorized as catastrophic events, too. The determining factors are that the damage was done to a residential structure and that structure was uninhabitable for 30 days or more.
Damage to fences, barns and detached garages are ineligible.
“If a tree pulled down your pool cage, we need to know that,” Tussing said,” But we can’t give you a rebate.”
Tussing offered the estimated rebate on a home in Summerfield Village as an example of the savings. The pre-damage market value of the home was $556,365 on Jan. 1, 2024.
The home was damaged during Hurricane Debby and was uninhabitable for the remaining 149 days of the year.
The dwelling was valued at $492,963, and the land and non-dwelling structures were valued at $63,402. The owner paid a tax bill of $7,381.99 in November, which included a 4% discount for paying before Dec. 5.
The estimated rebate is $2,010.52. Tussing said the nearly 30% rebate is due to the fact that the house was a large portion of the value.
“That’s going to cause a bigger refund,” he said. “On the beaches, it’s the inverse. A lot of the houses on the islands — the land is worth more money than the house.”
Prior to the hurricanes in 2024, the Property Appraiser’s Office never had a high enough demand to require a damage survey tool, but now that the system is in place, it will remain in place for residents to access as needed.
Homestead exemptions can also be filed online at the Property Appraiser’s website. The deadline is the same — March 3. Homeowners that don’t file on time will pay more tax than needed for the next year.
Tussing said the two deadlines are going to make the office extremely busy from now until then, so residents might want to save themselves the trouble of having to find a parking spot in their lot and file online.
“We’re trying to make it easy,” he said. “Do it online. It’s a lot simpler than coming to see us. But if you can’t, come on down. We’re more than happy to see you.”
