More than 1,000 Philly landlords fraudulently claim homestead exemptions
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Owners of apartment buildings in posh areas of the city filed for tax relief intended for homeowners.
The blight-activism site Philadelinquency reported today that 1,163 landlords have applied for homestead exemptions on properties with active rental licenses. Filing for an exemption on a rental property is, in most cases, an attempt by a landlord to game the exemption system in order to recieve a cheaper tax bill.
Homestead exemptions are designed to mitigate the impact of steeply rising tax bills on a longtime homeowner's primary residence, caused by gentrification or by the city's restructuring of its property tax system. The program acts as a credit toward the city's assessed value of a given property, allowing an individual to exempt up to $30,000 of that value from taxation.
Homeowners renting portions of their primary residence are allowed to file for partial exemptions, but the Philadelinquency list shows individuals claiming the full $30,000 exemption on properties with active rental licenses, a violation of the program's guidelines.
Although the program was designed mainly to help low-income residents, a number of exemptions were filed on very valuable properties.
Robert and Jennifer Lindley own 1717 Spruce St., a building listed on city tax records as a $1.3 million apartment building in Center City, with zoning approvals for five to 50 apartment units. When they purchased that property, they listed their primary residence as a rowhome on Rodman Street. However, although 1717 Spruce has a number of units currently available for rent online, the couple still filed for a full $30,000 exemption.
When reached on the phone today, Jennifer Lindley refused to say if she had filed for a homestead exemption on that property. Before abruptly hanging up, she said she would only answer further questions if they were submitted in writing.
An additional 64 of the landlords on the list are tax delinquent, which means they effectively applied for an exemption against taxes they're not paying anyway.
You can see the full list here.
