"It's just a wooded lot," property owner Tabitha Wise told Eyewitness News. "I bought it as an investment, but it's costing me more than it's worth right now."
Look up sticker shock in the dictionary and you would probably find Wise's picture.
Her wooded lots are located on Morris Drive in Anderson Creek. It's a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, yet the tax collector thinks an awful lot of her property.
"My land has jumped up from a thousand dollars a lot...to 12-thousand dollars a lot," Wise said.
She has owned the property since the early 1980s and has not developed any of the land, yet it has jumped in value to $72,000.
"It's unbelievable how things have changed over the years," said David Ferrell, a Harnett County property owner.
Ferrell is on a fixed income and says most of the time he has to choose between buying food and paying bills. The tax on his property also increased.
"Well it jumped from four-thousand up to five-thousand, and I'm on disability, social security," Ferrell said.
At the county tax office behind the court house, complaints are hears. Boyd Beasley is a revaluation coordinator. He explained to Eyewitness News the reason for Wise' property value change.
"The highest and best use we're talking about here are for residential lots," Beasley said. "And these are cut up and recorded as lots. So that's what we would value them as residential building lots."
Beasley also said it doesn't matter that the areas are wooded. He plans to take another look at the lot and encourages everyone with questions to send in fill out an informal review form.
According to Beasley, some elderly people, disabled people and veteran may qualify for major tax breaks.
The deadline to submit the informal review form back to the tax collector is April 6.
For more information, visit Harnett County's Website by clicking here.
