Another Taxpayer Fails to Overcome Presumption of Correctness

A recent New Jersey Tax Court trial regarding a single-family riverfront residence in Monmouth County resulted in a judgment affirming the assessment because the property owner, representing herself pro se, failed to overcome the presumption of correctness afforded to New Jersey local property tax assessments.

The taxpayer owned a home on the Manasquan River.  At trial, she offered five comparable sales, but one of them was rejected because it was a “short sale” and none of the others were found to be sufficiently comparable to warrant a reduction in the assessed value.  In particular, the court found that the sales generally had comparable land (all were riverfront properties) but the improvements on the comparable sales were not found to be similar.   Also, plaintiff made location adjustments which were not supported by objective data and used units of comparison which were not found persuasive by the court.  For these reasons, the assessment was affirmed.

A copy of the Tax Court’s opinion in Larsen v. Wall Township is available here.

See our prior blog posts related to the issues in this appeal:

Taxpayer Fails to Overcome Presumption of Correctness

Appraiser’s Subjective Adjustments Rejected; Owner Loses Appeal

Taxpayer Clears One Hurdle But Trips on Another

Apartment Complex Wins Assessment Reductions at Trial