Earlier this summer we noted a legislative effort in Harrisburg to stop the practice of property value appeals by taxing bodies based on sales. The most recent action on the legislation was a month ago.
Closer to home, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of two Pittsburgh homeowners who purchased a home in 2015 for well above its assessed value and saw the school district appeal the sale and have the assessed value raised (still about $50k less than the sales price).
If successful, the lawsuit wants to see refunds on properties that were appealed in the years 2014-16 and to stop local taxing bodies from appealing values on properties based on their sale price. It is worth noting that this property is located in the City, where the City government dropped appeals in 2016 but since the school district is a separate entity it could carry out its own appeals.
Interestingly this situation looks like an identical one to 2008 (which we touched upon in the May blog) where a school district in Schuylkill County appealed sales and prompted state legislation, which was vetoed by the Governor who felt that, because of the lax requirements on when counties have to reassess values, taxing bodies would have no recourse. He urged legislation to mandate a reassessment cycle. But to this day there has been no change. So that leaves people who buy property in a situation where they could be appealed on their sale price if they fall within the criteria laid out by the taxing body.
