ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! Taxpayer’s appeal stuck down by Township’s Chapter 91 Attack

In HPFVI Pisc. Portfolio v. Piscataway Twp., the plaintiff taxpayer challenged the $2.25 million assessment on its property.   In response, the Township of Piscataway filed a motion to dismiss the complaint alleging that the plaintiff failed to respond to the assessor’s request for income and expense information made pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-34 (“Chapter 91”).  The taxpayer opposed the motion claiming that the Township failed to establish that the Chapter 91 request had actually been received by the taxpayer.  The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument and granted the Township’s motion.  The court concluded that, “in the absence of a certification from the plaintiff that the Chapter 91 request was not received by the addressee, it is sufficient for the defendant municipality to produce the certified mail receipt received from the post office as evidence of receipt, even where the certified mail receipt was not signed. In the absence of an affirmative showing by plaintiff that the request was not received, defendant’s proofs are sufficient.”

As is typically the case, the court sided with the municipality in this Chapter 91 matter.  For a taxpayer to stand a chance to overcome a Chapter 91 attack, it must be prepared to prove that the income and expense request was not received or that it did in fact respond.  As with challenging the assessment itself, the taxpayer bears a heavy burden in overcoming a Chapter 91 attack.  In this case, the taxpayer lost the opportunity to challenge the 2012 assessment and, more importantly, to reduce its nearly $150,000 annual tax bill.

For more on Chapter 91 cases please see:

Two More Taxpayers Victims of Chapter 91 “Litigation Gamesmanship”

To Wield Chapter 91 Sword to Dismiss Tax Appeals Towns Must Play by the Rules

Property Owner’s “False” Responses Lead to Dismissal of Tax Appeal

Property owner survives Verona’s “Chapter 91″ attack

Chapter 91 Strikes Another Taxpayer

Tax Court Denies Phillipsburg’s Chapter 91 Motion to Dismiss