what kind of damage you’ve incurred,” he
says. “In California, they have a standard
of restricted access in the statute. That is
the criteria. If you satisfy it, you could
potentially get relief. For example, if the
government orders your business to be
shut down, that’s typically something that
could qualify for restricted access.”
If the economic fallout from COVID- 19
continues, Mo expects people to file a
claim on their January 1, 2021 value.
“If the assessor hasn’t captured the fullimpact of that damage on January 1, 2021,the taxpayer is going to file a claim anyway,” Mo says. “We’ve been telling clients ifthey’re doing a normal appeal anyway,they ought to consider filing a disasterclaim. It’s going to be relatively similar totheir 2021 claim.”—Les Shaver
UPFRONT
A comprehensive look at what’s trending in the world of commercial real estate
As the economic fallout from COVID- 19 engulfs the nation, commercial property owners are seeking any kind of reliefthey can find as their tenants ask for helpwith rent.
One kind of relief that landlords mightmiss are property tax disaster relief claims,which allows owners to lower and evendefer their property tax payments, saysDouglas Mo, of counsel at EvershedsSutherland.
“The building owners would be getting
a reduction in the value of their taxable
property,” Mo says. “Typically, the reduc-
tion occurs the day of or the day after the
calamity. In normal property tax, it usually
runs on an annual cycle.”
Without this disaster reprieve, Mo says
many taxing authorities wouldn’t make
the tax relief effective until July 1, 2021.
“That means that you have to wait 16
months for relief if you were affected in
March,” Mo says.
If a building owner receives this reduc-
tion, they will get relief starting on the
date of the calamity. “Each state has a dif-
ferent measurement date and a different
fiscal year,” Mo says. “The whole goal of it
is you get relief right away rather than wait-
ing until the next measurement date.”
Right now, at least 11 states have some
sort of valuation relief or tax deferral
related to a disaster.
“It’s very state-dependent,” Mo says.
“Each state has its own particular set of
laws regarding disaster relief. Some have
pretty explicit provisions regarding disas-
ter relief, and others don’t
have any disaster relief at
all.”
Mo advises property
owners to understand the
statutory scheme of their
particular state. “Then,
your claim has to be well-
documented in terms of
PROPERTY OWNERS CAN GET PANDEMIC
RELIEF THROUGH TAX DISASTER CLAIMS
Officials at Austin, Texas-based multi- family acquisitions and analytics firmOfferd say there appears to be robustinterest in off-market deals for large rentalproperties developing in the wake of thecoronavirus pandemic.
Ken Hoff, the founder and now-presi-dent of Multi-Housing Equity Partnersand a partner at Offerd, says that ownerswho had plans to sell—deals which wereoften a year in the making—are understandably concerned thatproperties
CORONAVIRUS MOVING
MORE MULTIFAMILY
DEALS OFF-MARKET
