SE Oakland News

Property owners in Michigan have an extension of more than three months to challenge 2020 property taxes, according to Bridge Michigan. 

While the deadline to appeal property taxes was initially May 31, it’s been extended to Aug. 31 for all property owners, including residential, agricultural, industrial and commercial.

Owners are allowed to appeal the value of a property (as of Dec. 31, 2019) based on 2020 assessments. Even though COVID-19 had not yet been declared a pandemic last December, the real estate market was impacted around that time, which could allow owners to challenge taxes this year. 

“Retail has been in a spiral for years,” Michael Shapiro, a tax appeal attorney for Detroit’s Honigman, told Bridge Michigan. “Malls, shopping centers, retail centers of all kinds have been hurt badly by online shopping. Their values have gone down dramatically. Occupancies have gone down. There’s a basis for significant appeal.”

While COVID-19 hadn’t hit when tax assessments were developed in the first quarter of 2020, it certainly has impacted property owners' ability to appeal the values, as several municipal boards of review were canceled. At the same time, many property owners’ key focus was staying in business. 

“Talk about distractions,” Stewart Mandell, Honigman partner, told Bridge Michigan. “We saw a lot of taxpayers very much focused on trying to save businesses. And… for more than I can remember, taxpayers just were not getting the information as they usually have.”

By early July, 1,390 appeal requests had been submitted to the Michigan Tax Tribunal. At this time last year, there were 1,725 requests. 

Friedman Real Estate’s executive managing director, Scott Shefman, said, “We file a handful [of appeals] each year. We generally have decent success. We’re only filing appeals where we think a legitimate case can be made for a reduction," according to Bridge Michigan.

On the other side, some municipalities are concerned about the appeals that could be filed in 2021 as a result of this year’s COVID-19 effect. 

“We’re so dependent on property taxes,” Chris Hackbarth, director of state and federal affairs for the Michigan Municipal League, told Bridge Michigan. ”What happens to those businesses that go out of business and close permanently? What are we going to see with occupancy rates and our hotels and the lodging industry? Are they going to come in after December and start appealing their taxes and lowering their tax rate?”