BLOG: Property Tax Appeal

Correction of Errors Statute Wrong Way to Correct County Tax Board Judgment

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
10 Mar 2014
Several property owners recently asked the Tax Court to correct judgments entered by the Middlesex County Board of Taxation after receiving judgments showing a different value than the County Tax Board commissioner hearing the matters had determined.  Specifically, the commissioner indicated that he had determined the market value of the properties was $420,000, which placed... Read More

Homeowner’s Reduced Assessment Upheld by Appeals Court

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
4 Mar 2014
Long Branch City unsuccessfully appealed the decision of a Tax Court judge which reduced the assessment on a residential home.  The home at issue was built in 2008.  At trial, the property owner’s valuation expert testified that he relied primarily on comparable sales from Deal Township, a neighboring municipality which he considered more desirable, and... Read More

Sisters Get Only Some Mercy From Tax Court on Exemption Claim

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
3 Mar 2014
Last week, another property exemption case was decided by the New Jersey Tax Court, this one in partial favor of the property owner, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americans Mid-Atlantic Community, Inc. (the “Sisters”).  The Sisters own two parcels of property in Sea Isle City, Cape May County, which are located one block from... Read More

Country Club’s Exemption Claim Lands In The Rough

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
21 Feb 2014
A Tax Court judge has rejected a claim by Sakima Country Club for a real property tax exemption under N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6.  Sakima Country Club is a private club located in Carney’s Point Township.  Sakima was originally incorporated in 1931 as the Dupont Penns-Grove Country Club, a non-profit entity.   Sakima’s organizational documents explicitly provide that the... Read More

Another Taxpayer Fails to Overcome Presumption of Correctness

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
6 Feb 2014
A recent New Jersey Tax Court trial regarding a single-family riverfront residence in Monmouth County resulted in a judgment affirming the assessment because the property owner, representing herself pro se, failed to overcome the presumption of correctness afforded to New Jersey local property tax assessments. The taxpayer owned a home on the Manasquan River.  At... Read More

Appraiser’s Subjective Adjustments Rejected; Owner Loses Appeal

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
8 Jan 2014
In a challenge to a residential property tax assessment for tax year 2011 the New Jersey Tax Court found that plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient competent evidence to overcome the presumption of validity. The plaintiffs in Bogusevich v. Ocean Twp., presented factual and expert testimony to which the township did not object and which the... Read More

Appeal from Dismissal of Exemption Claim Permitted Late in the Game

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
7 Jan 2014
A property owner’s motion to dismiss a complaint filed by a municipality was recently denied in Twp. of Cranbury v. Princeton Ballet Society.  Princeton Ballet Society (“PBS”) moved to dismiss the complaint filed by Cranbury, suggesting that it was filed past the statute of limitations to do so.  The Township’s complaint alleged that PBS’s property... Read More

Landlord Goes for Broke to Intervene in Tax Appeal by Bankrupt Tenant

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
6 Jan 2014
The Tax Court decided a case of first impression when it was asked to permit a landlord to intervene in a tax appeal to seek Freeze Act relief after a Bankruptcy Court judge entered an order reducing the assessment of the Subject Property following the entry of a Bankruptcy Court order.  Pathmark, as tenant, filed... Read More

How to value thee? The NJ Tax Court counts the ways . . . .

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
31 Dec 2013
Under New Jersey law all real property is required to be assessed as of October 1st of the preceding tax year at its “full and fair value,” i.e., what “it would sell for at a fair and bona fide sale by private contract on October 1 [of the pretax year].” So, how do you value... Read More

BMW’s Farmland Assessment Request Veers Off Course

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
30 Dec 2013
Between 1998 and 2006, BMW permitted a tenant farmer to tend a 20 acre apple orchard which was part of a larger assemblage of property intended to house BMW’s corporate headquarters in the future.  The orchard maintained farmland assessment status during this period, and contained over 200 trees, a body of water used as part... Read More