Monday, April 30, 2012

Board Finds County Failed to Show Property's Value was Correct for 2008 and Taxpayer Failed to Show Property's Value was Incorrect for 2009

[B]ecause the property’s assessed value for 2008 increased more than 5% over the property’s assessed value in 2007, the assessor has the burden to prove the assessment was correct in 2008. See Ind. Code § 6-1.1-15-17.2.  For the 2009 assessment, however, … the Petitioners have the burden to show that their property’s assessment is incorrect and the burden to prove the property’s market value-in-use.

The Respondent’s representative admitted that the Petitioners’ property was over-valued for 2008, but she contends the correct value for the property was $483,600 based on the average sales price of properties located on the golf course in the Petitioners’ neighborhood...


Here, the Respondent presented no evidence to show that her offered properties were comparable to the property under appeal. In fact, based on the Respondent’s evidence that sale prices for properties in the Petitioners’ neighborhood ranged from $133.93 per square foot to $217.81 per square foot in 2006 and 2007, the Board can infer that the homes in the Petitioners’ neighbor varied a great deal. Because the Respondent’s representative made no attempt to identify or value the differences between the properties, the Respondent’s sales comparable analysis has little probative value. …

[For 2009] the Petitioners argue that their property is over-valued based on the property’s appraised value.   But the Petitioners omitted key portions of Ms. Lewellen’s appraisal report. For example, the page offered did not certify that Ms. Lewellen followed Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). More importantly, the report’s missing pages appear to contain key information about Ms. Lewellen’s analysis. For example, in performing her sales comparison analysis, Ms. Lewellen adjusted the sale prices of her three comparable properties. Yet the summary of Ms. Lewellen’s sales comparison analysis, in which she presumably explained her adjustments, is contained in an “Attached Addendum” that the Petitioners did not submit.

Also, the appraiser estimated the subject property’s value as of March 27, 2009. Jacobsen testimony; Petitioner Exhibit 1. However, the valuation date for the March 1, 2009, assessment date was January 1, 2008. The Petitioners failed to show how the March 27, 2009, estimate of their property’s market value was relevant to the January 1, 2008, valuation date for the March 1, 2009, assessment date. See Long, 821 N.E.2d at 471 (holding that an appraisal indicating a property’s value for December 10, 2003, lacked probative value in an appeal from a 2002 assessment because the taxpayer did not explain how it related to the relevant valuation date). Thus, in light of the Petitioners’ decision to omit key portions of Ms. Lewellen’s appraisal report, the Board gives little to no weight to Ms. Lewellen’s valuation opinion.


http://www.in.gov/ibtr/files/Jacobsen_79-017-08-1-5-00001_and_09-00001.pdf