Greenwich Retail, LLC v. Greenwich

Citations

• 233 Conn. App. 78

Syllabus

Pursuant to statute ((Rev. to 2019) § 12-63c (a) and (d)), in determining the present true and actual value in any town of real property used primarily for purposes of producing rental income, the town's assessor may require the submission of certain information regarding such property ''on a form provided by the assessor'' and any property owner who fails to submit such information ''shall be subject to a penalty . . . .'' The plaintiff property owner appealed from the trial court's judgment ren- dered for the defendant town upholding a municipal tax assessment of a penalty imposed pursuant to § 12-63c (a) and (d). The plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the court incorrectly determined that the word ''provided'' in § 12-63c (a) does not require that an income and expense form actually be received by the property owner and/or its agent. Held: The trial court properly determined that the word ''provided'' in § 12-63c (a) does not require that an income and expense form actually be received by the property owner and/or its agent, as the term is plain and unambiguous and simply means to be made available, there having been no indication that it was intended to impose specific requirements on assessors with respect to how they must make the income and expense forms available to property owners, and, in light of the legislature's comprehensive statutory tax scheme, this court declined to add any such requirements onto the clear statutory language. The trial court properly determined that the mailing of the income and expense form by the defendant's assessor to the plaintiff's last known address satisfied the requirements of § 12-63c (a), as the court deemed the evidence presented regarding the plaintiff having taken reasonable measures to ensure that the assessor had an up-to-date mailing address to be uncertain and speculative, the evidence presented at trial with respect to the proce- dures that the defendant followed in sending a bulk mailing demonstrated that they w