Attorneys for a downtown Boston office landlord and the city of Boston sparred over whether the court system should decide if the Assessing Department engaged in alleged systematic inflation of commercial property valuations.
A Cambridge developer’s lawsuit over the city’s affordable housing rules could impact policies Boston developers say have stalled new housing there.
She has a chance to look magnanimous in an increasingly heated tax dispute between City Hall and office tower owners. Instead, she’s digging in.
A conservative legal advocacy group filed suit against the city of Boston on behalf of commercial landlords who claim they suffered retaliation for challenging inflated property tax assessments.
The suit, filed by the Pioneer New England Legal Foundation, challenges a city law requiring any project of 10 units or more to permanently set aside 20 percent of it as affordable housing.
For years, cities and towns across the nation seized homes and properties for back taxes and then sold them off for hundreds of thousands of dollars, pocketing the gains.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu flatly rejected a legal aid group’s claim that the city is raising assessments on commercial landlords that appeal their valuations to a state board.
Boston has retaliated against commercial landlords that appeal their property tax assessments by imposing a surcharge, a legal aid group alleges.
