Simms v. Pope

Opinion

FUKUTO, J. Alexander Pope, as county assessor (Assessor), and the Assessment Appeals Board, County of Los Angeles (Board), appeal a judgment in favor of plaintiff, Maria Simms, granting her a property tax refund.

Simms received a permit to build an addition onto an existing single family dwelling. Tax assessment personnel measured and diagrammed the addition during the framing stage. Subsequent to the completion of the improvement, an attempt was made to verify these measurements in order to establish the value of the addition for tax purposes. Simms’s husband ordered the appraisers off the property.

The Assessor calculated the size of the addition to be 2,010 square feet. Based on this figure, the addition was valued at $105,500.1

Simms challenged the property tax assessment of her residence by filing an application for change in property tax assessment with the Board claiming a refund. Simms contended that the completed addition measured 1,512 square feet and was valued at approximately $73,000. Her square footage figure was based on measurements her husband and her attorney had taken of the interior of the addition.

Maintaining that the best way to calculate the area of the subject property was to measure it on site, the Assessor requested that the Board issue an order directing Simms to allow an appraiser to enter onto the property for the purpose of measuring the addition. Simms took the position that the Board did not have the “equitable power” to make such an order, and contended that the Board was obligated to “rule on the evidence at this time.” The Assessor summed up its position as follows: “We have submitted the best data that we have available based on our initial view of the property when it was under construction based on our estimate of the [476]quality of construction, all the evidence that was available to us during our visits to the property. Based on that we stand on our value [$105,500] as presented.” The Board upheld the assessment as established by the Assessor. Simms paid the disputed tax and then filed an action for refund.

The trial court reversed the decision of the board, based upon the following analysis. “[Simms] made an addition to her residence by contracting with a licensed contractor to add two bedrooms, a den, and one and one-half bathrooms. [Simms] paid [$73,000] for the addition. [Simms] did not accept the low bid, but took the second highest bid. [Simms] took out a city building permit, and the city indicated that the addition was 1,250 square feet. [Simms] measured the addition herself at [1,512] square feet. The Assessor was denied access to the property, and estimated the size of the addition by viewing the outside of the residence. The Assessor’s estimate was 2,010 square feet. The Assessor did not review the building permits. The Assessor valued the addition at [$105,500]. [([] The Court finds that there was no substantial evidence presented to the Board to establish the value of [$105,500], The only evidence of cost was the price paid by [Simms] and the permit issued by the city. [Simms’s] claim for $1,317.84 refund of overassessment is granted.”