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Jul
31

Property Tax Disaster Overshadows Memphis

Outdated valuations create risk of assessment increases under Shelby County's 2025 reappraisal.

In late 1811 and early 1812, West Tennessee's New Madrid Fault produced several earthquakes greater than magnitude 7.0, swallowing the town of Little Prairie, Missouri, in liquefaction and temporarily reversing the flow of the Mississippi River to crest its banks and create Reelfoot Lake.

Almost 200 years later, pseudo-scientist Iben Browning infamously sparked an earthquake frenzy by predicting another major New Madrid quake would occur on Dec. 3, 1990. School children of the 1990's likely still remember earthquake drills in the classroom and "earthquake kits" (trash cans filled with food, water and medical supplies) assembled and stored in basements and garages for years after.

Fortunately, Browning's prognostication was a dud and nothing happened. Still, those living above the New Madrid Fault today know in the back of their minds that "The Big One" could hit at any time.

For taxpayers, that time may be 2025, when Shelby County Assessor Melvin Burgess will reappraise properties countywide to 100 percent of fair market value for the first time since 2021. It may not shake buildings to the ground or flood low-lying areas, but the 2025 reappraisal could do grievous damage to unprepared taxpayers.

Market heat builds pressure

During the Shelby County reappraisal in 2021, the market was recovering from the 2020 slow-down in lending and sales transactions due to COVID-19. The assessor seemed to take the pandemic into account, refraining from aggressively capturing all of the market's growth from 2017 to 2019.

Low interest rates helped transaction volume accelerate in 2021 and the first half of 2022, however, quickly putting distance between the assessor's mercifully low appraisals and actual market value. The real estate market cooled after interest rate hikes in late 2022, but the value differential was already significant. A sales ratio study by the Tennessee Division of Property Assessments indicated the overall level of assessor's value in Shelby County was 75.87 percent of actual market value by Jan. 1, 2023. That ratio could be even lower for individual properties.

Shelby County's 2025 reappraisal program will aim to eliminate such undervaluations. The bigger the current undervaluation, the bigger the taxpayer's potential increase next year.

This is a major flaw in long reappraisal cycles: Undervaluations expand over the course of the cycle like geothermal pressure until the difference suddenly, and sometimes catastrophically, vaporizes in a single year with a massive increase in assessed value.

These delayed assessment adjustments and resulting tax increases make budgeting more difficult than would more frequent but less dramatic reappraisals. The Tennessee Legislature has been considering shorter reappraisal cycles, but none of the proposals have passed both houses yet.

Bad timing for a big setback

Property tax increases are never convenient, but 2025 could be especially poor timing. If interest rates stay relatively high and operating expenses keep rising, tax increases may arrive when there is no room to accommodate them in over-stressed taxpayer budgets.

Even in 2024, a non-reappraisal year, the mayor of Memphis has proposed a monstrous tax rate increase for properties inside the city. It is doubtful the city will raise rates as much as the mayor wants, but a 2024 increase in city taxes before the assessor's 2025 reappraisal could create back-to-back blows that are hard to absorb.

Preparing for "The Big One"

Hiding under a desk or filling a trash can with supplies will not stop a major assessment increase in 2025, but there are other ways to prepare.

1. Understand the timeline. The assessor will formally certify 2025 values by April 20, 2025, but value-change notices are expected around mid-March or early April. Appeals must be filed to the Shelby County Board of Equalization, with a likely deadline of June 30. The city of Memphis sends tax bills around July that are due by the end of August. Shelby County taxes are due by the end of the following February.

2. Anticipate the increase. Don't be caught off guard by a higher tax bill. It is important to estimate the assessor's reappraisal value and develop a realistic 2025 property tax budget. If the assessor's new value is unreasonably high, it can be challenged through a timely appeal to the Shelby County Board of Equalization. Some amount of increase is likely to be fair and supportable, however, so adjusting tax escrows in advance would be prudent.

Property tax professionals can help

Preparing for the 2025 reappraisal needn't be a daunting process. A property tax professional can provide a tax estimate in preparation for the 2025 reappraisal, and if the assessor's new value is too high, file an appeal.

Taxpayers preparing for The Big One to rattle their real estate would be well served to consult a property tax professional in advance. An experienced advisor can help identify the fault lines of undervaluation and brace-up vulnerable budgets before the reappraisal strikes.

Drew Raines is a shareholder in the Memphis law firm of Evans Petree PC, the Arkansas and Tennessee member of the American Property Tax Counsel, the national affiliation of property tax attorneys.
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Mar
02

Property Tax Pitfalls in 'Crane City USA'

Tennessee's appeal process allows Nashville taxpayers to challenge the complicated assessment of new construction.

Over the past decade, Nashville has enjoyed a baffling explosion of growth that sent cranes shooting up all over the city, festooned with developer names like Bell, Clark and Giarratana. Highrise towers of glass and steel rose out of the old rail yards like the emerging monolith in the opening scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey" multiplied in a funhouse mirror.

The Metropolitan Government is eager to add new projects to its tax rolls, and its Assessor of Property decides when and how that happens. The assumptions made by the Assessor's office about a project's cost and timing dictate how quickly and how much a new building is taxed. So, as always, taxpayers need to keep an eye on what the assessor is doing.

The assessor's difficult job has become even more complicated in the post-COVID quagmire of supply chain failures. Twelve-month projects have stretched into 24-month projects, and the assessor's assumptions about completion times have been thrown out of whack. To make matters worse, Tennessee's property tax statutes were not designed to give relief for construction delays or lengthy projects, and the clock is ticking.

New Construction Assessed at Material Cost

The last Davidson County reappraisal was in 2021, and the next will be in 2025. Normally, the assessor's values remain unchanged over the four-year cycle, but new construction is an exception to that rule.

Under the statute for assessing projects under construction, if a new improvement is partially complete on Jan. 1, the assessor is to value the property for that year at land value plus the cost of materials used in the improvement as of that date. This materials-only value favors taxpayers because it excludes labor costs.

The construction documents that are generally accepted as evidence of project costs do not typically segregate labor versus material costs, however. Those costs are most often listed as combined totals, making the exact material costs difficult to determine.

One example from a recently reviewed document described work that included a $279,000 line item for "caulking." Unless labor and materials are both included in that number, that's a heck of a lot of white goop! Rather than demand proof of exact material costs, assessors will sometimes allocate material costs based on a pre-established rule of thumb.

Substantially Complete?

Now for the tricky part. The new construction statute allows assessors to pick up new improvements after Jan. 1, so long as the structure is "substantially complete" prior to Sept. 1 that same year. So, for example, if a building is 50 percent complete at Jan. 1 and 100 percent complete at Sept. 1, the assessor will prorate at the 50 percent value for eight months of the year, and at the 100 percent value for four months of the year. If the improvements are not "substantially complete" by Sept. 1, the assessor must wait to pick up the as-complete value in the following year.

Tennessee has no statutory definition of "substantially complete" for purposes of adding the full value to the tax rolls, but cases make it clear that tenant finish-out and certificates of occupancy are not required. In the absence of simple, objective standards for completion, assessors make subjective judgments about completion that may not favor the taxpayer. Taxpayers can challenge those judgments through an administrative appeal.

Adding Insult to Injury

Under Tennessee law, new improvements may not be valued as incomplete for more than one year after construction began. Now, your immediate reaction might be, "That's ridiculous! How can you value an incomplete property as complete just because it took longer than 12 months to construct!?"

The assessor in Davidson County has taken the position that the statute prevents them from using the taxpayer-favorable, materials-only value in the second year a property is incomplete. They will likely still use the cost approach to determine the appraised value but add back the cost of labor that was taken out in the first year, greatly increasing the tax burden before the property is generating income. The legislature has not acted to provide relief from this further insult to developers already injured by increasingly protracted construction timelines.

The Good News

Tennessee assessors are only authorized to reassess a property at specific times, but taxpayers can appeal the assessor's Jan. 1 value of Nashville property to the Metropolitan Board of Equalization every year. If the assessor issues a prorated assessment for a new construction project later in the year, the taxpayer can appeal that value directly to the State Board of Equalization.

In light of the complexity of Tennessee's law on the assessment of new construction, owners of new projects in Nashville should seek counsel as to whether their assessments are fair and legal and avail themselves of the right to appeal if appropriate.

Drew Raines is a shareholder in the Memphis law firm of Evans Petree PC, the Arkansas and Tennessee member of American Property Tax Counsel, the national affiliation of property tax attorneys.
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Jan
01

Tennessee Property Tax Updates

UPDATED june 2024

Missed Deadlines

There are many deadlines in the property tax appeal process.  While it is natural to assume that missing one of these deadlines would extinguish the ability to challenge an assessment, this is not always the case.    

For example, when taxpayers miss the deadline for appealing a county board of equalization decision to the state board of equalization, there may be a statutory remedy.  Tennessee law provides that, in certain circumstances, taxpayers can still file a state board appeal, despite missing the appeal deadline, if they can show “reasonable cause” for their failure to file an appeal.

Taxpayers should contact counsel when seeking a property tax reduction even if they believe that a deadline may have been missed.  There are many nuances in the appeal process, and engaging proper counsel is the only way to maximize the chances of achieving tax savings.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Evans Petree PC
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

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Mar
11

Rocky Top Tax Relief

"Reappraisal process allows Shelby County taxpayers to appeal assessed values every year."

Tennessee's fiscally strapped cities and counties are pressuring assessors more than ever before to aggressively value commercial property. Taxpayers must be aware of their rights under state law, lest an assessor attempt to prematurely capture any value increases prior to the next scheduled reappraisal.

With a proper understanding of the reappraisal process, commercial property owners in Memphis and Shelby County could get some property tax relief over the next three years, whether the fair market value of their properties increase or decrease.

Work the Reappraisal Cycle

Many states require assessors to reappraise property values annually. In Tennessee, counties have the option to reappraise property every four, five or six years. Shelby County reappraises every four years; its last reappraisal was in 2013 and the next one will be in 2017.

The purpose of reappraisals is for the assessor to adjust values for tax assessment purposes to actual fair market value. In a market that is moving up or down, the effect of a four-year reappraisal cycle is that appraised values fall out of sync with the market in between reappraisals.

Shelby County's reappraisal process is designed to favor taxpayers by enabling them to appeal assessed values every year, while the assessor can only adjust values in a reappraisal year (with some exceptions). This means that taxpayers can account for decreases in value annually, but the assessor can only capture increases in value every four years — when values increase.

The commercial real estate market in Memphis has been improving, and values have been steadily increasing, for certain types of property for the past year or two. For example, recent sales of medical office buildings indicate a much stronger market than in prior years. Demand for Class A multifamily properties have likewise increased, driving up sales prices. In the sought-after Poplar Avenue/240 corridor, vacancy in Class A+ office buildings had fallen to 7.7 percent in the third quarter of 2013, down from a peak of 20 percent in 2010, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Owners have a right to an official notice from the assessor if the value on a property changes. The owner may then file an appeal with the Board of Equalization to contest the value change.

Owners should scrutinize the basis of a change in value by the assessor. Although there are certain times the assessor can change a value in a non-reappraisal year, there are other times when a change is not appropriate.

For example, an assessor should not "chase sales" to value a recently sold property at its sale price. Such a revaluation would constitute an illegal spot reappraisal. Also, the assessor should not revalue a property to reflect ongoing maintenance or repairs due to a turnover in tenants. Such actions by owners are ongoing and the revaluation of these properties would essentially amount to a reappraisal.

In what circumstances can the assessor revalue a property prior to the next reappraisal date? One example is when an addition or renovation is made to a property. In that case, the assessor may legally revalue the property because its physical condition has changed. Another example is when the Board of Equalization has reduced the value of a property due to its circumstances, such as being completely vacant. If the property is leased up, the assessor may revalue the property in subsequent years, even if not a reappraisal year.

Some property types in Memphis are still languishing under depressed values. The industrial vacancy rate stood at 14.1 percent in the third quarter of 2013, Cushman & Wakefield found. Industrial rents remained soft, as many users have relocated south of Memphis, across the state line in DeSoto County, Miss. Class C and D multifamily properties are still suffering from elevated vacancy and collection issues. Expenses, such as insurance, are rising at faster rates than rents. Many former tenants of Class C and D apartments have taken advantage of the institutional purchase and rental of single-family homes.

Fortunately, Tennessee law allows owners of these properties to file appeals every year. The assessor is not required to send an official notice to the taxpayer when the value stays the same, however. This means that taxpayer must remain vigilant to prevent the assessor from leaving the value for tax assessment purposes unchanged when the true fair market value of the property is decreasing. Taxpayers in this situation should exercise their annual right to appeal in order to avoid paying the same amount of property taxes on a property that is not worth as much as it was a year ago.

 

araines Andy Raines is a partner in the Memphis, Tennessee law firm of Evans Petree PC, the Tennessee member of American Property Tax Counsel (APTC), the national affiliation of property tax attorneys. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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