Challenge to the assessed taxable value (TV) & state equalized value (SEV) of an apartment complex; Uniformity in taxation; True cash value (TCV); MCL 211.27a(1); Detroit Lions, Inc v City of Dearborn; TV; MCL 211.27a(2); Principle that the purchase price is not the presumptive TCV; MCL 211.27(6); Tax Tribunal (TT)

The court held that the TT erred by granting respondent-city summary disposition of plaintiff’s challenges to the assessed TV and SEV of its apartment complex. Petitioner filed a petition in the TT challenging the increases in the values at which the property was assessed. The TT, after first denying both parties’ motions for summary disposition, reconsidered and granted summary disposition for respondent, finding its decision was supported primarily by the property record cards submitted by both parties. On appeal, petitioner argued that the TT erred by finding respondent’s assessor did not violate MCL 211.27(6). “Although the purchase price is not the presumptive TCV, it is also not presumptively excluded as the TCV, contrary to what the petitioner argues. At its core, this is a dispute regarding the proper valuation of the property.” The court noted the TT “cannot simply accept the municipality’s assessment as correct, which is essentially what it did in this case.” Here, there was “at least a question of fact as to whether the assessor treated the purchase price as the presumptive TCV of the subject property and manipulated variables in the assessment methodology without sufficient justification or current inspection to arrive at the same value. We are not deciding that the TCV cannot equal the purchase price; the statute clarifies that the purchase price is not presumptively the TCV.” The court was also “not concluding that the city’s assessment was improper or arbitrary. We merely determine that, in this instance, the []TT did not fulfill its duty to determine the TCV independently and effectively rubber-stamped the city’s assessment.” Reversed and remanded.