Agenda 12-01-2025; 8-e - Property Tax Release-Refund Request – Laura Jost Malahias

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3 https://canons.sog.unc.edu/zot3/oz/when-does-an-appraisal-error-justify-a-refund/ SCHOOL of UUNC GOVERNMENT Coates' Canons NC Local Government Law When Does An Appraisal Error justify a Refund? Published: 02/14/13 Author Name: Chris Mclaughlin Which of these appraisal errors justifies a property tax refund? 1. Taxpayer is taxed for property that did not have a taxable situs in the jurisdiction. 2. Taxpayer is taxed for a house that burned the prior December. 3. Taxpayer has vacant land but is taxed for the land plus a house. 4. Taxpayer has an unfinished attic but was taxed for a finished attic. Finish was never verified by appraiser. 5. Taxpayer has a 1,500 square-foot house but the assessor appraised it at 1,750 square feet based on the size of similar houses in the same neighborhood. Most property tax professionals would agree that a refund is justified in situations 1, 2 and 3. So do I. But situations 4 and 5 are tougher nuts to crack. Property tax refunds and releases are governed by G.S. 105-381,which limits them to circumstances in which the tax either was levied due to clerical error or was illegal. While those terms are not defined by the statute, they've been analyzed several times our state courts. The most detailed of these opinions came from the N.C. Court of Appeals when it analyzed the meaning of the term"clerical error" in the 1997 case Ammons v. Wake County.. As I discussed in this 2010 post, the court concluded that to qualify as a clerical error the mistake must be that one produces an unintended result and is apparent from the face of the documents, such as a transcription mistake (for example, recording 5,200 square feet instead of 2,500 square feet.) The term"clerical error" does Copyright©2009 to Present School of Government at the University of North Carolina.