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Selective Reassessment of Only Commercial Properties Violates the Uniformity Clause

By Alan Nochumson and Clementa Amazan
October 01, 2021

In Duffield House Assocs., L.P. v. City of Phila., 2021 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 520 (July 29, 2021), the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently analyzed whether the City of Philadelphia's selective reassessment in tax year 2018 of only commercial properties at current market value violated the Uniformity Clause and the Assessment Law's requirement that the City assess all properties annually at actual market value.

For the 2018 tax year, the City reassessed 41,730 commercial properties in the City at current market values, imposing more than $118 million in additional real estate taxes on those properties, the opinion said. However, the City did not reassess 538,380 residential properties in the City, leaving their assessments at 2017 tax year values and imposing no additional real estate taxes on those properties, the opinion said.

According to the opinion, Duffield House Associates, L.P. filed a Complaint alleging that the City selectively reassessed only commercial properties at fair market value for tax year 2018, in violation of the Uniformity Clause and Section 8565(b)(2) and (c) of the Consolidated First-Class County Assessment Law (Assessment Law), 53 Pa. C.S. §8565(b)(2) and (c), which requires annual reassessments of all City properties.

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