Property Taxes
As with most things in life, commercial real estate has its ups and downs. The bad news is that many property owners are still straddled with the lingering effects of the adverse conditions that led to the crash and subsequent dormancy in today’s commercial real estate market. The good news is that the same adverse conditions obstructing the market’s recovery may present opportunities for reducing property taxes and increasing cash flow to property owners. Wolterman Law Office has obtained reductions for dozens of commercial property owners in recent years, and we are ready to work for you.
In a recent case, we reduced a client’s property taxes resulting in cash refunds to the client in excess of $100,000 for a single year.
Appealing property taxes in Ohio involves challenging legal issues, including:
- Only an attorney licensed to practice in Ohio is permitted to represent commercial property owners, with limited exceptions.
- Typically, upon the filing of a property tax appeal, the local Board of Education will file a counterclaim and even seek an increase in taxes in certain situations.
- The Boards of Education are represented by sophisticated counsel who routinely defeat inexperienced property owners.
- Evidence rules must be adhered to in order to preserve rights to appeal the decision of the local revision board to the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals or Court of Common Pleas.
- Introducing testimony of expert witnesses is vital to successfully challenging property tax assessments – as such, we enlist expert witnesses in most of our cases.
- Determining property valuation for purposes of contesting tax assessments is vastly different from determining valuation for investment purposes, and knowing the differences is critical.
- A property owner may only challenge a property tax assessment once in a three-year period; therefore, it’s imperative to do things correctly the first time.
Contact us by email or call 513-488-1135 to arrange an initial consultation with attorney Steve R. Wolterman.
Our offices are open for consultations from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. Evening and weekend appointments may be available by special arrangement. Our attorneys will often make appointments to meet at client locations.