Board Values Property in Excess of its Appraised Value based on Testimony of Taxpayer

Ms. Castleman offered a variety of evidence in an attempt to show that the subject property was assessed too high. Much of that evidence, however, lacks probative value. For example, while Ms. Castleman’s son pointed to various factors that he felt detracted from the subject property’s value, he did not attempt to quantify their effect or otherwise explain how those factors led to a particular value or range of values. Similarly, he did nothing to explain how his purportedly comparable sales from 2010 related to the subject property’s market value-in-use as of the January 1, 2007 valuation date at issue in this appeal.
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Nonetheless, Ms. Castleman did offer Lance E. Krebs’s appraisal report, in which Mr. Krebs estimated the subject property’s market value-in-use at $390,000 and the subject lot’s value, as vacant, at $350,000. Mr. Krebs certified that he performed his appraisal in conformity with USPAP, and he used a generally accepted appraisal approach—the sales-comparison approach—to arrive at his valuation opinion.

Although Mr. Krebs estimated the property’s value as of March 1, 2008—more than a year after the relevant January 1, 2007 valuation date—he relied on sales from 2006 and 2007. Mr. Krebs’s valuation opinion therefore bears at least some relationship to the subject property’s value as of the relevant January 1, 2007 valuation date.

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Thus, Mr. Krebs’s appraisal convinces the Board that the subject property’s assessment was wrong. If Ms. Castleman had asked the Board to lower the subject property’s assessment to match Mr. Krebs’s appraisal, the Board likely would do so. But Ms. Castleman asked for a land assessment of $473,928 on her Form 131 petition. And her sole witness reaffirmed that request at the Board’s hearing. Under those circumstances, the Board will not reduce the subject property’s assessment below the amount that Ms. Castleman requested.

http://www.in.gov/ibtr/files/Castleman_76-006-08-1-5-00001.pdf