According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s April 1st article, Philly to rake in $118 million in new taxes after reassessing commercial properties, approximately 60,000 owners of commercial, industrial and hotel real estate will receive their assessment notices for 2018 real estate taxes by mid-April. That was not intended to be an April Fools’ article. The opening sentence, far from being a joke, was “Commercial property owners could be in for some sticker shock when they receive the city’s new property assessments in mid-April.” The City did not raise everyone’s assessment, but apparently a good many were increased, and some were increased substantially.
The City knows that there will be appeals, and that many appeals will be upheld. The article quoted an expected shrinkage of the overall theoretically increased revenue by 20% from appeals.
If you were over-assessed before, or think that the increase is too severe now, this would be the right time to start the paperwork for an assessment appeal. Appeals can linger, for one reason or another, for more than a year. The moral is that the sooner you get in the queue the sooner you may be heard.
Reach out to your relationship partner here at Kleinbard, or to David Chanin at 215.523.5330 or via email at dchanin@kleinbard.com or Bernie Kolodner at 215.496.7226 or via email at bkolodner@kleinbard.com for more information.