JOEL W. ROBBINS, ETC., APPELLANT,
v.
SUMMIT APARTMENTS, LTD., ETC., APPELLEE
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The Property Appraiser appealed a trial court judgment that reduced the tax assessment of a HUD-regulated apartment complex. The court reversed, holding that the appraiser's assessment based on all statutory criteria and fair market value of the unencumbered fee was proper, and that HUD restrictions do not warrant a reduction below the range of reasonable appraisals.
The court held that the property appraiser's assessment of $7,200,000 was proper. Despite HUD restrictions limiting income, the assessment must represent the fair market value of all interests in the property as though held in fee simple. The taxpayer failed to show the appraiser did not follow legal requirements or that the assessed value was outside the range of reasonable appraisals.
[1] A property appraiser's determination of just valuation will not be disturbed on review if each statutory factor has been lawfully considered and the assessed value is wit…
[2] The just valuation of property for tax assessment purposes must represent the value of all interests in the property, including the fair market value of the unencumbered…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the just valuation at which property must be assessed under the constitution and section 193.011 is synonymous with fair market value.... In arriving at fair market value, the assessor must consider, but not necessarily use, each of the factors set out in section 193.011. The particular method of valuation, and the weight to be given each factor, is left to the discretion of the assessor, and his determination will not be disturbed on review as long as each factor has been lawfully considered and the assessed value is within the range of reasonable appraisals.”
Establishes the standard for proper property tax assessment under Florida law, emphasizing the assessor's discretion and the requirement that all statutory factors be considered.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceSummit Apartments is a 237-unit HUD-regulated apartment complex with controlled rent. The Property Appraiser initially assessed it at $7,200,000. The …
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PER CURIAM.
The Dade County Property Appraiser appeals a final judgment reducing a property owner’s tax assessment. • For the following reasons, we reverse.
The Summit is a 237-unit apartment complex. The complex is regulated by HUD, and the rent is controlled. In 1988, the property appraiser assessed the property at $7,200,000. Subsequently, the special master reduced the assessment to $6,229,-916. The taxpayer challenged that assessment in circuit court, and the property appraiser filed a counterclaim alleging that the assessed valuation was below just value.
At trial, the assistant property appraiser testified that in arriving at his assessment he considered the eight criteria for determining just value found in section 193.011, Florida Statutes (1989), including the highest and best use for the property, and utilized the cost approach, the market approach, and the income approach1 in valuing the property at $7,200,000. The appraiser further testified to the sales prices and rental rates charged for comparable non-HUD properties and to his examination of financial statements for the property itself. The taxpayer's expert, using only the income approach, stated that the proper assessment was $5,562,900.
The trial court ruled in favor of the taxpayer. The corrected final judgment provided that the assessor had considered all of the factors enumerated in section 193.-011 but that the taxpayer had refuted the presumption of correctness. Additionally, the trial court noted that this case involved “unique and special properties” because of the HUD regulations.
The trial court erred in adopting the taxpayer’s valuation and in setting aside the property appraiser’s assessment which was based upon all of the criteria found in section 193.0112 and upon the value of all of the interests in the property.
“[T]he just valuation at which property must be assessed under the constitution and section 193.011 is synonymous with fair market value.... In arriving at fair market value, the assessor must consider, but not necessarily use, each of the factors set out in section 193.011. The particular method of valuation, and the weight to be given each factor, is left to the discretion of the assessor, and his determination will not be disturbed on review as long as each factor has been lawfully considered and the assessed value is within the range of reasonable appraisals.”
Valencia Center, Inc. v. Bystrom, 543 So. 2d 214, 216-217 (Fla.1989). In Valencia, the taxpayer sought to have the assessment on its property reduced below the highest and best use for the property because development of the property was restricted by a below-market lease. In rejecting the taxpayer’s argument, the Florida Supreme Court reaffirmed “the general rule that in the levy of property tax the assessed value of the land must represent all the interests in the land” despite the existence of a mortgage, lease, or sublease of the property. Id. at 217. Recently, in Schultz v. TM Florida-Ohio Realty Ltd. Partnership, 577 So. 2d 573 (Fla.1991), the Florida Supreme Court, in accord with its decision in Valencia, held that:
When determining the fair market value of income-producing property which is encumbered by a long-term submarket lease, the assessor must consider ... each of the factors set out in section 193.011. The ultimate method of valuation employed ... is within the discretion of the assessor. However, the resulting valuation must represent the value of all interests in the property — in other words, the fair market value of the unencumbered fee.
Here, the valuation given by the taxpayer’s expert failed to represent all of the interests in the property and failed to value the property as though the taxpayer possessed the property in fee simple. The appraiser’s valuation, on the other hand, was properly based upon the fair market value of the unencumbered fee.
The taxpayer contends that the fair market value of the property should be reduced due to the HUD restrictions which limit the income derived from the property. In support of this proposition, the taxpayer urges us to follow Community Dev. Co. v. Bd. of Assessors, 377 Mass. 351, 385 N.E. 2d 1376 (1979), wherein the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that the tax board erred in failing to consider HUD restrictions on the property in determining the proper estimated annual income figure for tax assessment purposes and in basing its valuation on higher fair market rates. The Massachusetts courts favor the capitalization of income method to determine the “fair cash value” of federally restricted housing projects. Id.; Board of Assessors v. Tammy Brook Co., 368 Mass. 810, 331 N.E. 2d 531 (1975). However, the legislature in our state requires utilization of all of the statutory criteria outlined in section 193.0113 to determine the just valuation of income-producing property. Therefore, we are not persuaded by the taxpayer’s argument. Finally, even if a policy reason exists for reducing the valuation on HUD regulated properties, this court is required to follow the controlling decisions of the Florida Supreme Court. Hoffman v. Jones, 280 So. 2d 431 (Fla.1973).
We conclude that, notwithstanding the existence of HUD regulations on the property, the taxpayer failed to show that the property appraiser did not follow the requirements of law or that the assessed value was not within the range of reasonable appraisals. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s order and remand for reinstatement of the property appraiser’s assessment.
Reversed and remanded with directions.
. The appraiser testified that the cost, income, and market approaches are the three major approaches used for determining the tax assessment for income-producing properties.
. Even assuming that there was no formal inspection of the property within three years prior to assessment, this omission does not amount to noncompliance with section 193.011 on these facts.
. Section 193.011, Florida Statutes (1989), states that in arriving at just valuation the property appraiser shall take into consideration the following factors:
(1)The present cash value of the property
(2) The highest and best use to which the property can be expected to be put in the immediate future and the present use of the property;
(3) The location of said property;
(4) The quantity or size of said property;
(5) The cost of said property and the present replacement value of any improvement thereon;
(6) The condition of said property;
(7) The income from said property; and
(8) The net proceeds of the sale of the property....
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Robbins v. Summit Apts., Ltd., 589 So. 2d 460 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991)…t project, given the fact that the apartment complex is a participant in the Federal Housing and Urban Development Program. That contention has in the meantime been answered adversely to the taxpayer’s position in Robbins v. Summit Apartments, Ltd., 586 So. 2d 1068 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991). In sum, we conclude that the Property Appraiser showed that his assessment was made in substantial compliance with section 193.011, Florida Statutes (1987), and that the taxpayer’s evidence did not exclude every reasonable hypoth…
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S. Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Markham, 632 So. 2d 272 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)…fect of an encumbrance will not per se reduce the assessment value of property, but nevertheless becomes one of the many factors the assessor must consider in determining the value of the property to be taxed. In Robbins v. Summit Apartments, Ltd., 586 So. 2d 1068 (Fla. 3d DCA), rev. denied, 592 So. 2d 682 (Fla.1991), the court held that a taxpayer had to pay an assessment based on the fair market value of the property even though HUD restrictions limited the income derived on the property. There, the subject…
Authorities Cited
- Hoffman v. Jones, 280 So. 2d 431 (Fla. 1973)
- Valencia Ctr., Inc. v. Bystrom, 543 So. 2d 214 (Fla. 1989)
- Schultz v. TM Florida-Ohio Realty Ltd. P'ship, 577 So. 2d 573 (Fla. 1991)