A Tax Break for Condominiums?

Thanks to a client of mine, I learned about pending legislation in the New Hampshire Legislature this year that rightfully should be very helpful to condominiums. But let me giveth conteext first.

Condominium association are private property. It's why ours around the nation have noted that if the owners wish they can amend documents to be more restrictive than the public in general, such as creating over-55 communities, outlawing smoking, preventing people from having political posters that divide the community, and more.

In most condominium associations, the roads themselves are not owned by the municipality, but by the owners themselves. And in most such association, the owners have to pay for trash removal.

So municipalities save money with condominiums because they don't have to provide such services as snow removal, salting sanding, road repairs and r-epaging and trash removal, both regular and bulk. Essentially then owners in condominiums are paying taxes for services the town/city will not provide.

Years ago condominium associations sued municipalities for charging them for services they were not being provided. And they won. So municipalities changed the rules. They said the lack of services being provided was already rolled into lower tax assessments for condominiums. But when asked to see the formula or the data that proved it, they would not provide it … likely because thy could not provide it as it did not exist.

But now, Senate Bill 250 would allow town/cities to adopt a property tax credit for owners in community associations for services such as this noted above and private lighting sheet, water and sewer services not provided, including the replacement of the infrastructure. Sounds fair. So it is a sure thing municipalities will work hard to prevent it.

There are, or course, flaws with the bill. It would not require towns/municipalites to give the tax break. Rather, they may vote to give a tax break. None will. So, what is an owner to do? All per the proposed legislation, an owner who does not get a tax break can appeal back to the municipality's State's board of of tax and land appeals, which will likely take forever and pit a single landowner against a town's well experienced attorney, or it can sue n Superior court which will take 3 years nd tens of thousands of dollars for a few hundred dollars in a tax break each year.

What should happen, of course, for the sake of fairness, would be to require town/cities provide such a break in taxes for all the things noted. And to be transparent about it, so the formula they use can be reviewed. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if the Stat board of tax and land appeals actually create a uniform tax break base rate? Or would that b too simple a solution?

Two things are sure. Municipalities will fight this long and hard, therefore, there is no chance of it passing or becoming mandatory unless condominium owners, through coordinated efforts of their boards of directors, rich out directly to their local legislator and note their support for it and their lack of support for the incumbent if the incumbent does not work for its consittuationes who for years, perhaps decades have been paying taxes for services never provided and never to be provided. Under the criminal code, that's called theft. In Condo World, its called fair, unless you vote otherwise.

An Ow