2727 San Pedro LLC v. Bernalillo County Assessor

2017 NMCA 008, 10 N.M. 802
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 13, 2016
DocketDocket 34,869
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2017 NMCA 008 (2727 San Pedro LLC v. Bernalillo County Assessor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
2727 San Pedro LLC v. Bernalillo County Assessor, 2017 NMCA 008, 10 N.M. 802 (N.M. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

WECHSLER, Judge.

{1} This appeal arises from proceedings related to Appellant 2727 San Pedro LLC’s formal protest of Appellee Bernalillo County Assessor’s (the Assessor) 2014 notice of value for the subject property for property tax purposes. After considering evidence from both parties, the Bernalillo County Valuation Protests Board (the Protests Board) valued the property at $900,200 — the amount proposed by the Assessor. Appellant appealed to the district court, which affirmed.

{2} This Court granted certiorari under Rule 12-505 NMRA to resolve questions related to the sufficiency of the evidence. After reviewing the testimony supporting the Assessor’s valuation and considering our substantial evidence jurisprudence, we conclude that the testimony does not support a conclusion that the Assessor’s valuation of the property resulted from the application of generally accepted appraisal techniques. We therefore vacate the Protests Board’s valuation and remand to the Protests Board for additional proceedings consistent with this opinion. In its appellate briefing, Appellant raised several legal issues not contemplated in its petition for writ of certiorari. Based on Rule 12-505(D)(2)(b), we decline to review these issues.

BACKGROUND

{3} Appellant is the owner of a commercial office building located at 2727 San Pedro NE in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Appellant received the property’s annual valuation report from the Assessor on or around May 22,2014. This report valued the property at $1,113,300. Appellant filed a petition protesting the Assessor’s assessment of value and proposed that the correct value was $753,690. This petition additionally proposed that the income method of valuation was the most appropriate method by which to determine the value of the property. The Protests Board scheduled a hearing for July 8, 2014.

{4} On June 25, 2014, the Assessor recalculated its valuation of the subject property and sent Appellant a new valuation report. This report valued the property at $1,031,500. On July 8, 2014, immediately prior to the protest hearing, the Assessor again recalculated its valuation, further reducing the value to $900,200. Ms. Arlene Jaramillo, an appraiser employed by the Assessor’s office, represented the Assessor before the Protests Board. Jaramillo conceded during the hearing that properties considered as part of a commercial sales comparison were not sufficiently similar to support a valuation of the property. Because of the lack of sufficiently comparable properties, Jaramillo stated that the Assessor utilized the income method of valuation to determine the value of the property.

{5} Appellant introduced evidence supporting its proposed valuation, including Annual Property Operating Data (APOD) reports for the years 2011 through 2013 and a projected APOD for the year 2014. It also offered the testimony of a local real estate agent, although this witness was expressly not qualified as an expert in commercial real estate appraisal.

{6} With respect to the central issue in this case, Appellant argued that the Assessor, in applying the income method of valuation, should have utilized Appellant’s actual operating expenses, as reflected in the 2014 projected APOD, rather than limiting its expenses to forty-five percent of the effective gross income. In support of this argument, Appellant introduced the Protests Board’s 2009 decision and order for the property, in which the Protests Board stated that such an “expense limit is not a generally accepted appraisal technique.”

{7} Jaramillo testified that the Assessor’s application of the income method of valuation utilized a forty-five percent limitation on operating expenses based upon independent sources of market research. Specifically, Jaramillo stated, “[F]rom what we have seen as far as what people are bringing in, what we’ve researched from Business Weekly and Co-Star, right now the max[imum] vacancy is at fifteen percent and the max[imum] expenses [are] at forty-five percent, so that’s what we allowed” and “[We] us[ed] the market vacancies, expenses, reserves, and such that we have been giving everybody else based on the research we have done with Co-Star, Business Weekly, and everybody else that has brought us any kind of information.” Jaramillo also testified that Appellant’s “expenses were at eighty-seven percent, which is really high for what the market is doing.” 1 Jaramillo did not testify to the scope, with respect to the time period or property type, of the Assessor’s application of the forty-five percent operating expense limitation.

{8} The Protests Board concluded that its preference would be “to see the Assessor’s actual market studies to support the expense limits imposedf,]” but that “the Assessor’s approach to value is most reliable.” The Protests Board entered a decision and order that valued the subject property at $900,200. The decision and order additionally noted that the Assessor “offers an income approach valuation employing [Appellant’s] numbers, but limits vacancy to [thirteen percent], 2 management fees to [three percent], reserves to [four percent] and expenses to [forty-five percent], in accordance with the Assessor’s market research and review of data from other properties.” The order did not expressly state the source of, or basis for, these figures, or whether Appellant had overcome the statutory presumption of correctness afforded to the Assessor’s determination of value by NMSA 1978, Section 7-38-6 (1981).

{9} Appellant timely filed a notice of appeal and statement of appellate issues. Appellant raised eight issues on appeal to the district court. Five of those issues related directly or indirectly to whether substantial evidence supported the Protests Board’s implied conclusion that the Assessor’s valuation of the subject property was based upon generally accepted appraisal techniques. Appellant also asserted that the Protests Board erred in failing to expressly conclude that Appellant had overcome the statutory presumption of correctness. In its statement of appellate issues, Appellant provided an alternative calculation of its total operating expenses, amounting to sixty-two percent of gross operating income. 3

{10} The district court affirmed the Protests Board’s valuation in a memorandum opinion and order filed on June 23,2015. Due to a clerical mistake, the order was amended and refiled on June 25, 2015. The district court first addressed the Protests Board’s failure to expressly conclude whether Appellant had overcome the statutory presumption of correctness afforded to the Assessor’s determination of value, stating, “The Court agrees the [Protests] Board should have made a finding on this issue[,] . . . [but] will assume, for purposes of this appeal, that the presumption was overcome.”

{11} The district court, quoting First National Bank v. Bernalillo County Valuation Protest Board, 1977-NMCA-005, 90 N.M. 110, 560 P.2d 174

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Bluebook (online)
2017 NMCA 008, 10 N.M. 802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/2727-san-pedro-llc-v-bernalillo-county-assessor-nmctapp-2016.