These challenges include the very material hit landlords take totheir bottom lines as a result of expending resources on tenants indefault before they petition for bankruptcy, keeping tenantscurrent on obligations post-petition and maneuvering through themaze of court orders, notices, and deadlines. Nevertheless,property owners who carefully quantify their economic lossesassociated with tenant bankruptcies may preserve a portion of theirinvestments by appealing their property tax assessments.

Possible Claims When Appealing

In bankruptcy situations, various claims are available to help ataxpayer decrease assessed values and property tax bills. Forexample, using the income approach to value, a taxpayer can prove adiminished prospective income stream from leasing retail propertyto support a lower assessment. Likewise, a taxpayer can support alower assessment under the sales comparison approach to value byutilizing in the analysis comparable sales of properties wheretenants have filed bankruptcy, or supporting adjustments tocomparable sales to account for the effects from bankruptcy.