Drop in assessed value

[Timothy Lin]

I'm looking at a property owned by an LLC (property A). It is rural land in new hampshire, about 130 acres, without any improvements. It abuts another piece of property owned by the same LLC with a home on it, about 115 acres (property B). The owner of the LLC was recently imprisoned in 2017 for defrauding customers of his business. Property A's assessed value went from $186,900 in 2015 to $3,450 in 2016.

I'm wondering if anyone has ideas on why the assessed value might have gone down by 98%?  If the trial was ongoing in 2015 or 2016, could that somehow lead to decreased assessed value (if somehow property taxes weren't being paid and the town took this into account when assessing)? Are there other common ways that assessments go down by so much?

Thanks for any thoughts.