Unbelievable, just got an escrow sheet from my mortgage company, ( 2 months early) and it looks like my Property Taxes have more than DOUBLED!  I had to dig a little since the first thing I saw was my mortgage payment jumping by almost $200!  That alone just about flipped my shit.  I need to wait and get the notice from the county but it looks like they changed my Property Designation from AGRICULTURAL to RESIDENTIAL , AGAIN!  

I had this issue when we bought the place. ( in '08)  I got it reversed pretty quickly then, but my spidey-sense tells me that it might not be that easy this time around.  We did have a 'land use code' overhaul a few years back, it was not well received generally. There are plenty of points I can cite that led us to buy out in the country- most of those I could never do in town, but are/were? fine out here.   It pissed me right off when they did this before, and even now it's no easier to hear.   Should I lawyer up ? Or just go with their appeals process and hours common sense will prevail?

What county?

Larimer

You need to actually be doing agricultural stuff to keep the ag designation.  Keeping pleasure horses isn't enough. "Stuff you do out in the county" isn't even close to enough.

Get some cows...

Yep,  cows, goats , pigs,  lease pasture to the neighbors for cows, never know  what we have at any given time. Had to cut off the old lady from boarding horses because she overgrazed everything a little while back.
Not to mention the storage trailers, big truck (s), And my Peterbilt that parks in the driveway most  nights.
I just get so aggravated that they seem like they are running the county like an overgrown HOA-
( BUT , don't you dare criticize their road & bridge projects, or lack thereof )  
Oh yeah-  fuck those roundabouts too!

What was the reasoning for the original change?

They automatically do it upon a sale. ( under 40 ac. , I believe). It , happened to the previous property that I purchased up here too.  Or at least anytime they think they can slip it by.   Whenever some old farmer or whomever breaks up a big acreage and sells smaller plots.   I think it's just a revenue scheme for them. It pisses off a lot of people that catch it.  And they are really inconsistent about it too- they never hassled me on the last couple of assessments.

They will try at random, even if you are over 40 acres, and you will have to answer an inquisition (written, sometimes they have the gall to show up and look for excrement, etc).

Amen.  Traffic engineering here in insane.

Also, to OP:  Larimer needs more roundabouts, so they need more money.

Or better yet, allow some apiculturists/beekeepers to put some hives on your property. Less worrysome than livestock and just as valid.

Just got a huge increase from weld and Arapahoe. Going to be digging into those to contest it.

Well, I went ahead and sent in the 'informal' protest about the assessment. Now to wait and see how froggy they get. Let the games begin. It states that if I do not agree with their decision after this, I can file a formal protest and  contest it further.  I'm just fed up enough to fight them over it.  But the way real estate is around here I could be swayed by some of the STUPID high amounts of money being thrown around.  Might be time to just sell out and head for parts unknown.  No way I could stay around here and start again on a new place.

First protest letter worked -  got my classification of ag property back.
Sent the paperwork all to mortgage servicer so they wouldn't keep billing me for a tax
shortage,  and,,,,,  crickets.    No big surprise there actually. Talking to several folks who
bought around 07-08 are all having hell with their mortgages, feels like nobody has  a
servicer that actually wanted their note, therefore no incentive to lift a finger for the customer
if Anything is requested of them.
You need to be so perfect in your credit life anymore to get
any real service/options, its crazy. The horror stories from my oldest,
who is in banking are unreal. The banking/mortgage industry really got fucked up.  ( FHBO)

Larimer is really bad about bullshit property tax increases.  Every FUCKING year I've owned my house (bought it in 2007), they've tried to raise my assessment, often by astronomical amounts (10-20% a year).  I've disputed the fuckers each time and won.

Got my weld assessor to sign off on my evaluation.