BLOG: Property Tax Appeal

No Running From a Chapter 91 Request (It Runs With The Land!)

by: Thomas Olson
10 Dec 2019
In this recent tax appeal, plaintiff, Fulton Partners, LLC (“Fulton”) filed an appeal for tax year 2017. The City of New Brunswick (“New Brunswick”) moved to dismiss for Fulton’s failure to provide responses to its Chapter 91 request. The Tax Court granted New Brunswick’s motion in part and dismissed the tax appeal for lack of... Read More

Tax Court Denies Application of Single Economic Unit Doctrine

by: Thomas Olson
24 Oct 2019
In this Tax Court matter, Judge Jonathan Orsen denied Rutherford Borough’s (“Rutherford”) motion for partial summary judgement. Rutherford’s motion sought an Order directing that the parcels under appeal be treated and valued as a single economic unit along with two contiguous parcels owned by an unrelated party (not under appeal). Plaintiff, EGDC c/o AM Resurg... Read More

Fore! State-Owned Golf Course Ruled Tax Exempt Due to Public Purpose Law

by: Thomas Olson
2 Aug 2019
The New Jersey Tax Court in Cream Ridge Golf, LLC, et. al., v. Township of Freehold examined whether a state-owned golf course (which is tax exempt) loses its exemption by leasing the property to a private entity for profit, then is the private entity also tax exempt? The Court said so long as the golf... Read More

Non-Residential Development Fees: the Plain Language Confirms

by: Thomas Olson
30 Jul 2019
The New Jersey Tax Court recently determined 1) whether a subject property was improved for the purposes of calculating the Non-Residential Development Fee (“NRDF”)(N.J.S.A. 40:55D-8.1 to 8.7) and 2) the correct date to use when determining the preexisting value of the subject property for the purposes of computing the NRDF owed. The NRDF is applied... Read More

Exempt From Taxes? Not if You Fail to Answer the Chapter 91 Request!

by: Thomas Olson
26 Jul 2019
A New Jersey appellate court recently affirmed a Tax Court decision dismissing Alcatel’s complaint, which challenged the 2015 denial of a farmland assessment because Alcatel failed to respond to the tax assessor’s request for Chapter 91 data. NJSA 54:4-34 (“Chapter 91”) requires every real property owner “on written request of the assessor to render a... Read More

Who’s Got it Right? Court Finds Aging Corporate Center No Longer Holds Preeminence it Once Did and Was Not a Special Purpose Property

by: Thomas Olson
2 Jul 2019
ML Plainsboro LTD Partnership/Gomez v. Plainsboro revolved around the highest and best use of two lots located at 800 Scudders Mill Road in Plainsboro. When the two lots were built by Merrill Lynch from 1985-1994, it was designed to be a premier corporate campus. It featured an office building with a fitness center and cafeteria... Read More

Appeals Court Finds Restaurant on University Campus Tax Exempt Due to Colorful Arguments

by: Thomas Olson
1 Jul 2019
On May 31, 2018, the Tax Court of New Jersey held that a restaurant operated on Kean University’s campus did not constitute a university space and therefore was liable for local property taxes. Exactly one year later, an Appellate Division decision reversed the Tax Court decision and ruled that space on Kean University’s campus was... Read More

The App. Div. Says: “No Veteran’s Exemption Upon Remarriage”

by: Thomas Olson
29 May 2019
The Appellate Division reversed the Tax Court’s judgment conferring a military veteran’s exemption for tax year 2016 as the surviving spouse of her first husband (an honorably discharged, decorated Vietnam veteran who qualified for an exemption) who remarried. The spouse’s exemption qualifies only during widowhood related to the death of the qualifying husband. This right... Read More

Taxpayer’s Effort to Increase Assessor’s Own Assessment Might be Frivolous and Trigger Sanctions

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
29 Apr 2019
The New Jersey Tax Court recently issued an opinion regarding the timeliness of an application for sanctions and fees in connection with a property tax appeal filed by a resident who sought to increase the assessment on a home owned by a husband and wife who also are appraisers and local tax assessors.  The tax... Read More

Tax Court to Tax Assessors: Time to Choose a Side!

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
22 Apr 2019
A recent opinion by New Jersey Tax Court Mala Sundar, approved for publication, may force at least some of New Jersey’s municipal tax assessors to change the way they do business.  The case, decided April 2, 2019, involved a motion by the Township of Hazlet to bar a property owner’s appraisal expert because that expert... Read More