Maui Schooner attorney preparing case

[Kauai Kid]

From the Schooner Scoop:

"...the Maui Schooner has hired a local Maui attorney to appeal our property tax assessment.

Maui County has had so many appeals filed that they are still hearing appeals from 2006. Maui County suspended hearing appeals late last year and resumes the hearings in May..."

Our attorney has different comparables than those used by the assessor, they have data from other states presenting different approaches to taxes on time shares, and the sales data from 7/05-6/06 (time frame used by the assessor) could lower taxes $70,000/yr.

It is really a shame that all the Maui time share management firms haven't gone together in a class action lawsuit with some high power barristers to present the cases. Property tax increases of 400%? in 2-3 years make gasoline and medical increases seem cheap.

We will be at the Schooner mid April forgetting about paying taxes on the 15th. :zzz:

Sterling

 

[nazclk]

Maui Taxes

Sterling I think you are dead on with the class action lawsuit with the timeshare owners. Isn't there something called taxation without representation. How can they just raise the taxes at their whim.

 

[daventrina]

....

It is really a shame that all the Maui time share management firms haven't gone together in a class action lawsuit with some high power barristers to present the cases....Sterling

Like Marriott, Westin, Diamond, Consolidated...
We'll send the request to do so to Diamond....

 

[johnmfaeth]

A class action suit is actually not a good way to go unless one is out to prove that EVERYONE is taxed incorrectly. In most cases, one is better just sticking with ones own property and going through the tax assessment challenge process setup by the county assessor (that is called a "certiorari" process). In latin it means a "review" of the facts. There, one presents their evidence why the assessment is incorrect (ironically, no one ever argues it's to low).

If one disagrees with the findings, there is an appeal process. If lost, than one can start of formal civil case against the government's ruling. In NY, that is called an Article 78 case as it seeks relief from a government situation and is filed with the State Supreme Court. If lost, one could appeal (if an appeal basis is found) to the State Appeals Court.

So one has a predefined route to use the courts when the easier, far cheaper predefined procedures fail.

Class actions are for when a group has be damaged in general and fight together. They typically last many years and a fortune is spent just proving that they share some "damage".

This one is best kept simple IMHO. To qualify that, I have never been to Hawaii or had any dealing with the Hawaiian Government. But in general, these things are largely the same everywhere.

 

[nazclk]

Taxes

I don't know of anyplace stateside that has raised taxes 200-300 % in the last couple of years. If you know of any please enlighten me.

 

[daventrina]

A class action suit is actually not a good way to go unless one is out to prove that EVERYONE is taxed incorrectly.....

That is sort of the point here... Every timeshare has got the shaft

 

[Kauai Kid]

I don't know of anyplace stateside that has raised taxes 200-300 % in the last couple of years. If you know of any please enlighten me.

If you mean the mainland of the US by stateside neither do I. But Maui county has raised property taxes in the triple digit range for Maui time shares.

Sterling

 

[Icarus]

Some of that increase is related to the tax rates charged to time share owners. I don't think you're going to have any success in changing that. For better or worse, Maui County has decided to shift a good portion of the property tax burden more towards visitors, which includes hotel resorts and timeshare owners among others.

But the right thing to do is to have the attorney appeal the assessment value, if they have overassesed the timeshare valuation based on state and local laws. You might win that, and if you do, I would eventually expect to see changes to state and local laws governing how those assessments are done, like they did in California.

Typically in a class action suit, the only parties that actually win anything are the attorneys that take the case.

-David

 

[nazclk]

Taxes

Something just came to mind, if we are deeded owners of property, just because it is a fractional ownership why should we be treated any differently than 1 owner who owns the same piece of property. That is why in my opinion all the deeded timeshare owners need to jump on the bandwagon to stop future 200-300 % increases at the county's whim.

 

[Mimi]

We should all file claims as fractional owners and flood the taxation board with individual appeals and see how Maui County likes it! :hysterical:

 

[Icarus]

I don't think you are going to have any success in fighting the tax rate on hotels and timeshares. Municipalities everywhere tax different property uses at different rates, often with the higher rates being applied to businesses and individuals that have no vote in the matter.

You should, however, have your association appeal the valuation that the county is using if you can show through comparable sales, etc (following the exact rules set up by the county) that the valuation being used is not consistent with the method the county uses.

As far as flooding the county with appeals, I don't think any of the bureaucrats will bat an eye about that.

-David