PARK SOLUTIONS, LLC v. DeKALB COUNTY BOARD OF TAX ASSESSORS

783 S.E.2d 453, 336 Ga. App. 832
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 23, 2016
DocketA15A2136
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 783 S.E.2d 453 (PARK SOLUTIONS, LLC v. DeKALB COUNTY BOARD OF TAX ASSESSORS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PARK SOLUTIONS, LLC v. DeKALB COUNTY BOARD OF TAX ASSESSORS, 783 S.E.2d 453, 336 Ga. App. 832 (Ga. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

MCFADDEN, Judge.

The issue in this appeal is whether a sheriff’s sale of certain real property was an “arm’s length, bona fide” sale under OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) so that the sale price constituted the property’s maximum allowable fair market value for the next taxable year. Because we find that the sheriff’s sale was such an arm’s length, bona fide sale, the superior court’s ruling to the contrary was erroneous and must be reversed.

[833]*833On June 4, 2013, Park Solutions, LLC bought a tract of land for $25,000 at a sheriff’s sale in DeKalb County. The sheriff’s deed provided that Mollye Devault and Robert Christopher Taylor were the owners of the property; that the owners made the deed by and through the DeKalb County sheriff, acting in his official capacity; that the sheriff conducted the sale to satisfy a default judgment of $37,796 obtained by DRST Holdings Ltd.; that the sale was held “at the usual place for conducting [s]heriff’s sales in DeKalb [C]ounty before the [c]ourthouse door”; and that Park Solutions was the highest bidder at the “public outcry.”

After the sale, the county appraised the value of the property as $146,900 for the 2014 tax year, and Park Solutions appealed that valuation to the DeKalb County Board of Tax Assessors. The board of tax assessors issued a decision finding that the fair market value of the property was $137,700. Park Solutions appealed that decision to the DeKalb County Board of Equalization, which upheld the county tax assessor’s fair market value finding of the property as $137,700. Park Solutions then appealed to the superior court, asserting that, pursuant to OCGA § 48-5-2 (3), the maximum allowable fair market value of the property for the 2014 tax year was the $25,000 price that it had paid at the sheriff’s sale. The trial court rejected the argument, finding that the sheriff’s sale was not an arm’s length, bona fide sale under that statute because such “judicial foreclosure sales are not mentioned in the statute and also the parties to the sale are related and affiliated.” The trial court concluded that the county had accurately determined the fair market value ofthe property as of January 1, 2014, to be $137,700. Park Solutions appeals from the superior court’s final order.

1. Sheriff’s sale.

Park Solutions asserts that the trial court erred in finding that the sheriff’s sale in this case was not governed by OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) because such judicial foreclosure sales are not mentioned in the statute. We agree with the assertion.

OCGA § 48-5-2 (3), which is part ofthe code governing ad valorem taxation of property, provides, in pertinent part:

“Fair market value of property” means the amount a knowledgeable buyer would pay for the property and a willing seller would accept for the property at an arm’s length, bona fide sale. . . . Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, the transaction amount of the most recent arm’s length, bona fide sale in any year shall be the maximum allowable fair market value for the next taxable year. . . .

[834]*834The term “arm’s length, bona fide” sale as used in this Code section is defined as

meaning] a transaction which has occurred in good faith without fraud or deceit carried out by unrelated or unaffiliated parties, as by a willing buyer and a willing seller, each acting in his or her own self-interest, including but not limited to a distress sale, short sale, bank sale, or sale at public auction.

OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1) (emphasis supplied).

Thus, OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) “provides the method for assessing [fair market] value as of [January 1 of the applicable tax year] . . . , with its focus on the actual market-determined value of property on the actual date the property was acquired, rather than its value as much as a year later[.]” Columbus Bd. of Tax Assessors v. Yeoman, 293 Ga. 107, 109 (2) (744 SE2d 18) (2013). “This amounts to a freeze on the ad valorem tax value of property for one year. [Cit.]” Ballard v. Newton County Bd. of Tax Assessors, 332 Ga. App. 521, 522 (773 SE2d 780) (2015).

In finding that this freeze on the value of the property did not apply to the sheriff’s sale in this case, the trial court relied on OCGA § 48-5-1, which provides:

The intent and purpose of the tax laws of this state are to have all property and subjects of taxation returned at the value which would be realized from the cash sale, but not the forced sale, of the property and subjects as such property and subjects are usually sold except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

(Emphasis supplied.) The trial court then reasoned that foreclosure sales are considered to be forced sales and therefore “[r]eading [OCGA] § 48-5-2 (.1) to include judicial foreclosure sales would be contrary to the expressed intent of Title 48 to exclude values realized as a result of the forced sale of a property.”

However, the trial court overlooked the plain language in OCGA § 48-5-1 providing that it applies “except as otherwise provided in this chapter.” Likewise, the controlling portion of OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) itself expressly provides that it applies “[notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary [.]” We must construe these statutes together and harmonize them to ascertain the legislative intent. Aimwell, Inc. v. McLendon Enterprises, 318 Ga. App. 394, 397 (1) (734 SE2d 84) (2012). In so doing, even if we assume, without [835]*835deciding, that there is some inconsistency between them, it is apparent from the plain language of both Code sections that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, the legislative intent was to allow the specific provision of a one-year freeze on ad valorem tax value set forth in OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) to control over the general expression of purpose set forth in OCGA § 48-5-1. See Hubert Properties, LLP v. Cobb County, 318 Ga. App. 321, 323 (1) (733 SE2d 373) (2012) (specific statute will prevail over a general statute to resolve any inconsistency between them).

Moreover, the trial court also erred in concluding that the absence of the term “foreclosure sale” from OCGA § 48-5-2

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
783 S.E.2d 453, 336 Ga. App. 832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/park-solutions-llc-v-dekalb-county-board-of-tax-assessors-gactapp-2016.