2016

An interesting post at Honolulu journalist Ian Lind’s blog, “City’s explanation of discrepancies in real property tax assessments don’t satisfy,” commenting on a recent piece in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about the City and County of Honolulu’s method for appraising residences for property tax purposes (“Home price, taxable value can diverge“). 

If appraisal of real property is more art than science, then appraisal of property for property tax purposes is more like graffiti than art.Continue Reading City’s “Mass Valuation” For Property Taxes

Here’s a good one from the Ohio Court of Appeals to start off your 2016.

In State ex rel Greenacres Foundation v. City of Cincinnati, No. C-150038 (Dec. 30, 2015), the court agreed that the City’s failure to issue a demolition permit for the “Gamble House,” which the City claimed was a property worthy of historic preservation but had not yet so designated, was a taking. 

The Gamble House was built by the “Gamble” in Proctor & Gamble, the guy who invented Ivory Soap. But over the years, the house “had been uninhabited since 1961, had suffered extensive water and termite damage, and was infested by mice, birds, raccoons, squirrels, and bats.” So the current owners asked the city for a demolition permit so they could redevelop the property. 

The city said no, and ran the owners through a maze, with several appeals through the usual administrative procedures.

Continue Reading City’s Prohibiting Demolition Of Uninhabitable House So City Could Designate It As Historic, Is A Taking