Each tract or parcel of land and each town or city lot shall be separately appraised and valued, except when two or more adjoining tracts, parcels, or lots are owned by the same person, in which case the same may be appraised and valued either separately or collectively. When a single structure, used for a single purpose, is located on more than one town or city lot, the entire land area shall be appraised and valued as a single property.
Source: L. 64: R&RE, p. 695, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 137-5-4.
ANNOTATION
Annotator's note. The following annotations include cases decided under this section as it existed prior to its 1964 repeal and reenactment.
Record title owners of real property are the true owners of the property and are therefore responsible for property taxes. Hinsdale County Bd. of Eq. v. HDH P'ship, 2019 CO 22, 438 P.3d 742.
Separate assessments for estates owned by different persons. This section requires separate assessment where separate estates are owned by different persons. If the separate estate of an owner of an oil interest is held to be included in a description by section number of the surface without more to identify the severed interest, the result would be that the estate in oil is taxed without notice to the owner. Mitchell v. Espinosa, 125 Colo. 267, 243 P.2d 412 (1952).
This section permits single assessment of several adjoining lots if returned by the same person. Crisman v. Johnson, 23 Colo. 264, 47 P. 296 58 Am. St. R. 224 (1896).
Lots are presumed to be adjoining if so assessed. As public policy requires that all presumptions should be in favor of the legality of an assessment, where a complaint in an action protesting an assessment does not allege that the lots were not adjoining, the presumption is that they were. Bd. of County Comm'rs v. Yingling, 14 Colo. App. 449, 60 P. 582 (1900).
Fee title owners of subdivision parcels, rather than the homeowners association that manages the subdivision, are subject to real property taxation due to the covenants that permit the association to restrict property access for nonpayment of association assessments. Hinsdale County Bd. of Eq. v. HDH P'ship, 2019 CO 22, 438 P.3d 742.
Resort's income from rental management fees paid by condominium owners is excluded from valuation under the income approach to valuation. When a resort includes a corporate-owned hotel and separately owned condominium units, fees paid to a subsidiary of the hotel owner by the condominium unit owners for rental management services are not income that the hotel generates because the hotel and the condominium units are legally separate and distinct parcels of property that must be separately valued and appraised and the income used to pay the fees is derived from the rental of the condominium units. Lodge Props. v. Eagle Bd. of Equaliz., 2022 CO 9, 504 P.3d 960.