Revision: Aug. 29, 2011, midnight
CHAPTER 206
HB 316 – FINAL VERSION
16Mar2011… 0533h
05/18/2011 1855s
2011 SESSION
10/09
HOUSE BILL 316
AN ACT relative to penalties for failure to file a property tax inventory blank or for refusing inspection of property, and relative to the restoration of involuntary merger of lots or parcels.
SPONSORS: Rep. Manuse, Rock 5; Rep. Warden, Hills 7; Rep. Itse, Rock 9; Rep. Kurk, Hills 7; Rep. Sapareto, Rock 5; Rep. Burt, Hills 7; Rep. Antosz, Rock 9; Rep. Lambert, Hills 27; Rep. J. Roberts, Straf 7; Rep. McGuinness, Hills 20; Sen. De Blois, Dist 18; Sen. Carson, Dist 14; Sen. Bradley, Dist 3; Sen. Barnes, Jr., Dist 17
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill removes the penalty of loss of appeal for property owners who refuse to grant consent to assessing officials to inspect their property or who fail to file an inventory form.
This bill also permits the owner of involuntarily merged lots or parcels to have the lots restored to their premerger status.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
16Mar2011… 0533h
05/18/2011 1855s
11-0797
10/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eleven
AN ACT relative to penalties for failure to file a property tax inventory blank or for refusing inspection of property, and relative to the restoration of involuntary merger of lots or parcels.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
206:1 Inventory Form; Appeal Rights. Amend RSA 74:7-a to read as follows:
74:7-a Penalty for Failure to File.
I. Any person who fails to file a fully completed inventory form on or before April 15, unless granted an extension under RSA 74:8, shall pay a penalty of one percent of the property tax for which the person is liable. In no case, however, shall the penalty be less than $10 or more than $50. [Any person who fails to file an inventory form and who becomes liable to pay the penalty specified in this section shall lose the right to appeal the denial of an abatement of an appraisal under RSA 75:1, but shall not] No person who fails to file an inventory form shall lose the right to apply for, or appeal the denial of, any other type of tax relief including an appeal under RSA 72:34-a, an appraisal under RSA 75:11, or a land use change tax under RSA 79-A:7. This penalty has all the force of taxation and shall be treated as incident to the tax.
II. If a town fails to deliver the inventory blank, the penalty [of loss of appeal rights] shall not apply.
III. If the property is transferred during the tax year to a different owner and the inventory blank was mailed or delivered to the previous owner, the penalty [of loss of appeal rights] shall not apply to the subsequent owner.
206:2 Elimination of Inventory Blanks. Amend RSA 74:4-a, I to read as follows:
I. Any municipality, by vote of its board of selectmen, city council or board of aldermen may elect not to utilize the inventory form or procedure. Such a vote shall automatically exempt all property owners and others within that municipality from all requirements and provisions of law relating to the inventory form[, including the requirement of filing an inventory in a complete and timely manner in order to retain all appeal rights on property tax or other exemptions and considerations to which they may legally be entitled].
206:3 Repeal. RSA 74:17, II, relative to the loss of right to appeal tax for refusing to grant inspection of property, is repealed.
206:4 New Section; Restoration of Involuntarily Merged Lots. Amend RSA 674 by inserting after section 39-a the following new section:
674:39-aa Restoration of Involuntarily Merged Lots.
I. In this section:
(a) “Involuntary merger” and “involuntarily merged” mean lots merged by municipal action for zoning, assessing, or taxation purposes without the consent of the owner.
(b) “Owner” means the person or entity that holds legal title to the lots in question, even if such person or entity did not hold legal title at the time of the involuntary merger.
(c) “Voluntary merger” and “voluntarily merged” mean a merger under RSA 674:39-a, or any overt action or conduct that indicates an owner regarded said lots as merged such as, but not limited to, abandoning a lot line.
II. Lots or parcels that were involuntarily merged prior to September 18, 2010 by a city, town, county, village district, or any other municipality, shall at the request of the owner, be restored to their premerger status and all zoning and tax maps shall be updated to identify the premerger boundaries of said lots or parcels as recorded at the appropriate registry of deeds, provided:
(a) The request is submitted to the governing body prior to December 31, 2016.
(b) No owner in the chain of title voluntarily merged his or her lots. If any owner in the chain of title voluntarily merged his or her lots, then all subsequent owners shall be estopped from requesting restoration. The municipality shall have the burden of proof to show that any previous owner voluntarily merged his or her lots.
III. All decisions of the governing body may be appealed in accordance with the provisions of RSA 676.
IV. Any municipality may adopt local ordinances, including ordinances enacted prior to the effective date of this section, to restore previously merged properties that are less restrictive than the provisions in paragraph I and II.
V. The restoration of the lots to their premerger status shall not be deemed to cure any non-conformity with existing local land use ordinances.
VI. Municipalities shall post a notice informing residents that any involuntarily merged lots may be restored to premerger status upon the owner’s request. Such notice shall be posted in a public place no later than January 1, 2012 and shall remain posted through December 31, 2016. Each municipality shall also publish the same or similar notice in its 2011 through 2015 annual reports.
206:5 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 30 days after its passage.
Approved: June 24, 2011
Effective Date: July 24, 2011