What Does Disney's Appraisal Lawsuit Victory Mean for DVC?

Short answer: yes. If the ruling stands, it will eventually impact DVC owners.

This particular case was specifically for Yacht Club, but the ruling unequivocally stated that the methodology used to assess the value was illegal under Florida law. That means Disney and every other hotel owner in the state has grounds to claim they have overpaid. Disney already has a number of other lawsuits in the works and this ruling will affect all of them. It's not going to happen overnight, but eventually Orange County should refund several years' of overcharges.

Disney has paid the over-assessed taxes, and by extension, DVC members have paid them as well via our dues. Any refund of taxes on DVC properties will have to be returned to the membership - probably as a credit to dues in a future year or years.

I wouldn't count on seeing anything refunded for several more years.

Steve
 
I wouldn't count on seeing anything refunded for several more years.

And that is assuming they actually refund and don't give credit to future years instead. The county may negotiate not to pay in cash to properties like Disney that they know will be around for years to come, or may negotiate a prolonged repayment over many years. It just depends on what the law says, and what the parties and court decides.
 
And that is assuming they actually refund and don't give credit to future years instead. The county may negotiate not to pay in cash to properties like Disney that they know will be around for years to come, or may negotiate a prolonged repayment over many years. It just depends on what the law says, and what the parties and court decides.

Disney is thinking a 2043 repayment for BWV and BCV is looking pretty good. Maybe 2069 for CCV might make the most sense as well to spread things out, lol.
 

Looks like there are some very interesting repercussions. The District judges have reversed themselves and are now allowing The county assessor to re evaluate. I can only guess that there must have been just a tremendous amount of political pressure put on the judges for their original ruling. Not only would Disney be owed 10s of Millions of dollars in overstated Real estate taxes but so would every other Commercial entity. This would totally bankrupt Orange county as the total refund to Disney, Universal, Seaworld and every other resort would have totaled in the hundreds of millions (the assessor has been doing this since 2013). This is going to be very interesting to follow as more is surely to come of this mess.
 
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It is going to take years of appeals and reassessments that will take years to settle and challenges to the new assessments and so on and on and...........Until one day they settle on a number that works for both.

The question I have is will they come to the same amount using the different method to appraise the properties?
 
I was looking a my dues statement for BWV for 2020 and got a $52 credit on 250 points. Most I ever got by far.
 
I don’t think this case impacts DVC at all.

DVC frequently sells in the resale market. So there is an established market value for tax purposes.

On the hotel side, there are very few comparables, because properties like this do not turn over very often. There is clearly a lot of value in a Disney Hotel, but what is the value of the real estate? Clearly the hotels are very profitable, but Disney would argue 1) that the profits stem from the Theme Park business, and 2) the profits are taxed already, so this would be double taxation. So this leaves the underlying value of the real estate. So you have to look for the sales of a comparable property. Many times hotels go on the market when they are distressed, so Disney would argue the the sale of a distressed property is the proper comparable. OC would argue that a fully functioning resort would be the proper comparable, but these do not come onto the market very often. But I don’t see how this applies to DVC.

I am not a lawyer. Could be wrong.
 
I don’t think this case impacts DVC at all.

DVC frequently sells in the resale market. So there is an established market value for tax purposes.
I'm not a lawyer either.

However, the assessor looks at the value of the entire resort, not individual units/villas. Disney apportions the taxes between what they own and Members own, accordingly. If the assessed value of the entire resort goes up or down, so do Member taxes. Disney passes those through to DVC Members, whatever those end up to be - they are not subject to the 15% cap.

The dispute centers on the method the Orange County Assessor used to value the resorts. Disney argued that Florida law makes it illegal to include the value of Disney's intangible business assets (like revenue streams) in the assessment.
 
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Well, I predicted that would happen on another thread. If the values do end up being decreased and the county will need to refund millions and millions of dollars to all the different commercial entities, this will cause a whole lot of hurt. The county has already spent the tax dollars from prior years, it is not like they have a pool of funds that can handle the refunds, probably will do so in rebates over a period of time going forward. Both parties have to be furious that they are put in this mess by one rogue elected official (remember, he has been aware of the issues for approx 8 years and continued to go forward with no anticipation that this would not go his way-pure arrogance).
 
Another twist as now it looks like Singh is voted out as appraiser.
Well, I predicted that would happen on another thread. If the values do end up being decreased and the county will need to refund millions and millions of dollars to all the different commercial entities, this will cause a whole lot of hurt. The county has already spent the tax dollars from prior years, it is not like they have a pool of funds that can handle the refunds, probably will do so in rebates over a period of time going forward. Both parties have to be furious that they are put in this mess by one rogue elected official (remember, he has been aware of the issues for approx 8 years and continued to go forward with no anticipation that this would not go his way-pure arrogance).
I agree, maybe the new assessor can work out a deal with Disney (and other entities that were hit with this - weren't there others?) to avoid a large refund in exchange for decreased tax liability going forward. I doubt that Disney would want to be seen as bankrupting Orange County.
 
Once a final value is agreed upon Disney will likely see a credit towards future years property taxes. This will likely take quite some time though and it will be interesting to see what value the new appraiser for Orange County comes up with for Yacht club and all other resorts. It would be nice if the end result is a slower rate of growth of DVC dues.
 
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Once a final value is agreed upon Disney will likely see a credit towards future years property taxes. This will likely take quite some time though and it will be interesting to see what value the new appraiser for Orange County comes up with for Yacht club and all over resorts. It would be nice if the end result is a slower growth rate of DVC dues.
Yes I agree thank you for your responce!
 















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