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Appellate Court: Mobile Home Park Can Satisfy Affordable Housing Obligation
A New Jersey appellate court recently held that a municipality may use its eminent domain powers to seize a mobile home park in order fulfill its affordable housing obligation. The matter involved the taking by the Township of Robbinsville of a mobile home park owned by defendant, Mercer MHC, LLC, which contained approximately 14 acres... Read More
Tax Court to Tax Assessors: Time to Choose a Side!
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
Single Family Residence, Not Permitted By Local Zoning, Granted Exemption By Tax Court
A single family residence in Mahwah Township was recently granted a summary judgment, holding it exempt from property taxation pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6. The plaintiff, Chai Lifeline, Inc. owns a single family home in Mahwah used as a retreat to assist families with children suffering from terminal, life-threatening or other serious illnesses. The property includes... Read More
5 Things You May Not Have Known About Eminent Domain
A Property’s Value Isn’t Restricted to Its Current Usage If the government wants to take your property, it is obligated to provide you with “just compensation”. Just compensation is usually defined as the amount of money that would make the property owner whole by indemnifying the owner for the loss resulting from the taking of... Read More
How to Appeal Your New Jersey Property Tax Assessment
Property owners in New Jersey typically receive their final tax bills each year in July or August. This causes many to evaluate their property tax burden and to determine if they can save money by filing a property tax appeal. Although many property owners may believe that their property tax assessments are set in stone,... Read More
Tax Court Denies City’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Prosecution
The Tax Court recently denied a motion by the City of Ventnor to dismiss an appeal brought by a property owner from a judgment of the Atlantic County Board of Taxation. The City claimed the owner failed to prosecute the tax appeal before the County Board when its counsel appeared, but presented no evidence and... Read More
The Cost Approach: Hard Costs vs. Soft Costs in the Context of Tax Appeals
New home constructions often require that the property tax assessment which is then placed on a property be carefully examined. Generally, property assessments for the following year are set forth by the municipal assessor on October 1. However, if an improvement of a structure is completed after the regular assessment date of October 1, and... Read More
Doughnut and Coffee With Reversal and Remand
The Appellate Division reversed and remanded a decision of the Tax Court that affirmed the assessment on a Dunkin Donuts property in the City of Elizabeth. The appellate court found that the lower court erred by relying on evidence not in the record. Plaintiff’s appraiser utilized the income capitalization approach to appraise the property. In... Read More
“I Don’t Remember Sending It but Probably Did”…Works to Defeat Chapter 91 Dismissal Motion
We recently summarized Gamma-Upsilon Alumni Ass’n of Kappa Sigma, Inc. v. City of New Brunswick, a case in which the plaintiff’s tax appeal was dismissed due to its failure to respond to the assessor’s request for income and expense Information, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:4-34 (commonly known as “Chapter 91”). Chapter 91 provides that a... Read More
Fraternity’s creative arguments no match for Chapter 91
Perhaps not since Otter’s impassioned plea to keep Delta House from being kicked off campus in the 1978 classic movie, Animal House, has a fraternity presented such a creative argument. Of course, in Gamma-Upsilon Alumni Ass’n of Kappa Sigma, Inc. v. City of New Brunswick, a recent published opinion of the New Jersey Tax Court, seasoned... Read More
