Simms
Simms v. Pope
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Fukuto, J.
Alexander Pope, as county assessor (Assessor), and the Assessment Appeals Board, County of Los Angeles (Board), appeal a judgment in favor of plaintiff, Maria Simms, granting her a property tax refund.
Simms received a permit to build an addition onto an existing single family dwelling. Tax assessment personnel measured and diagrammed the addition during the framing stage. Subsequent to the completion of the improvement, an attempt was made to verify these measurements in order to establish the value of the addition for tax purposes. Simms’s husband ordered the appraisers off the property.
The Assessor calculated the size of the addition to be 2,010 square feet. Based on this figure, the addition was valued at $105,500.
Simms challenged the property tax assessment of her residence by filing an application for change in property tax assessment with the Board claiming a refund. Simms contended that the completed addition measured 1,512 square feet and was valued at approximately $73,000. Her square footage figure was based on measurements her husband and her attorney had taken of the interior of the addition.