Property Appraiser Investigations

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

Miami-Dade County (MDC) is losing revenue as a result of homestead exemption fraud. The PAO has traditionally investigated this crime; however, reports of fraud have come in faster than they could be investigated. The PAO investigators were overwhelmed by their homestead exemption fraud caseload. This resulted in a potential 5,000 homesteads not paying their true tax to local government; further aggravating a fiscal crisis that is already impacting County services. In response, the MDPD detectives have been assigned to the PAO to conduct preliminary investigations into homestead exemption fraud. The implementation has been conducted in several phases. Initially, two detectives worked in conjunction with PAO investigators to observe and learn the basic steps used by the PAO to conduct their investigations. Once acclimated, weaknesses and strengths of the homestead exemption fraud investigations were revealed, and a more thorough and streamlined process was implemented. Currently, additional MDPD investigators have been trained and assigned to the PAO and they independently conduct the investigations into homestead exemption fraud. This process allows existing PAO personnel to focus their efforts on filing liens on properties with fraudulent exemptions without the need to conduct their own investigations. This process is already proving successful as the number of liens filed by MDC has increased and will subsequently result in an increase in tax revenue. Since MDPD detectives initiated their own investigations in October 2011, 344 cases have been closed; 50 of these were recommended for liens. The value of the lien recommendations for December 2011 alone was 2.5 million dollars. In contrast, the total amount of liens for 2010 was 6 million dollars, demonstrating a substantial increase in recent productivity with the added assistance of the MDPD. The MDPD detectives’ presence has increased the PAO’s productivity dramatically. Previously, investigators would average 40 to 50 closed cases a month; MDPD detectives are doing that much every week, with an average of ten liens per week. The rise in liens will guarantee a substantial increase in revenue for MDC.