Columbus, OH Multifamily - Tax Due for Year Prior to Ownership

[Mark Jensen]

I purchased a Multi-Family property in February 2022 in Columbus, OH. Recently I got notified that the county reassessed the property value for 2021/2022 and now I owe a large tax bill for 2021 which is a year that I never even owned the property. After discussing with an attorney, there is a law (recently got changed) that allows them to do this based on a recent sale price of a property and the new owner owes the backdated tax amount.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fight this in general?

This just does not seem fair/right simply because they are asking me to pay taxes on a property that I didn’t own at that time/collect any income during that period. But on top of that, I feel that there is an argument that the property was not worth the sale price I paid on February 2022 for the year 2021. Only in QTR4 of 2021 did the previous owners get rents up to market. For the previous 3 QTRs, the property was receiving 25% less income than what it was getting upon the closing date. Isn’t there a solid argument that the rental income being 25% lower for the majority of the 2021 would directly effect the value of the property? My attorney and the people they tried to negotiate this with at the county don’t seem to think so….

Looking for some opinions / strategy here! Thanks so much!!!