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Trial Judge’s Acceptance of Petitioner’s Expert’s Valuation of the Property Was Against the Weight of the Evidence—the Actual Purchase Price in a Recent Sale and the Actual Rent Should Have Been Part of the Analysis

The Fourth Department, over a dissent, determined that the trial judge’s findings re: the assessed value of a retail property (for property tax purposes) were against the weight of the evidence. Specifically, the trial judge accepted the petitioner’s (Rite Aid’s) expert’s valuation which failed to take into account the actual price paid in a recent arm’s-length sale of the property, comparable sales, the actual rent (negotiated at arm’s length) and comparable rentals:

… [A]n appellate court is empowered to make new findings of value where the trial court ” has failed to give to conflicting evidence the relative weight which it should have’ ” …, giving due deference to the trial court’s power to resolve credibility issues by choosing among conflicting expert opinions … .

It is well settled that real “[p]roperty is assessed for tax purposes according to its condition [and ownership] on the taxable status date, without regard to future potentialities or possibilities and may not be assessed on the basis of some use contemplated in the future” … . Although several methods of valuing real property are acceptable, “the market value method of valuation is preferred as the most reliable measure of a property’s full value for assessment purposes” …, because “[t]he best evidence of value, of course, is a recent sale of the subject property between a seller under no compulsion to sell and a buyer under no compulsion to buy” … . A recent sale has been characterized as evidence of the “highest rank” in determining market value … . The scope of a “market” need not be limited to the locale of the subject property and, depending on the nature of the use, it may encompass national and/or international buyers and sellers … . * * *

… [W]e conclude that the failure of petitioner’s expert to use the recent sale of the subject property as well as readily available comparable sales of national chain drugstore properties in the applicable submarket as evidence of value demonstrates the invalidity of the expert’s conclusion with respect to the sales comparison valuation … . We further conclude that the use of sales not comparable to the subject and outside of the applicable market should have been rejected by the court as unreliable … . Moreover, the failure of petitioner’s expert to use the actual rent, negotiated at arm’s length and without duress or collusion, as well as the failure to use similar rental comparables from the applicable market as evidence of value, demonstrates the invalidity of the expert’s conclusions using the income capitalization method … . Matter of Rite Aid Corp. v Haywood, 2015 NY Slip Op 06049, 4th Dept 7-10-15

Similar issues and result in Matter of Rite Aid Corp. v Huseby, 2015 NY Slip Op 06051, 4th Dept 7-10-15

 

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