Opinion ID: 2276578
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lincoln Realty I and Airport Business Center

Text: As to Lincoln Realty I and Airport Business Center, the answer is clear: they may not. Although the First Class County Assessment Law provides for appeals from real estate assessments to be taken prior to the first Monday in October of the year preceding the year in which the revised assessment will take effect, 72 P.S. § 5341.14(a), neither Lincoln Realty I nor Airport Business Center filed an assessment appeal until after its entire five-year exemption had expired. Statutory provisions exempting property from taxation are to be strictly construed. See Four Freedoms House of Philadelphia, Inc. v. City of Phila., 443 Pa. 215, 219, 279 A.2d 155, 157 (1971). Thus, [i]f no appeal is taken from the assessment of taxes within the time allowed by law it becomes binding and conclusive[, and] neither the common pleas nor an appellate court can afford any relief. This holding constitutes a limitation on subject matter jurisdiction. Mausoleum Constr. Co., 55 Pa.Cmwlth. at 508, 423 A.2d at 811 (quoting City of Phila. v. Dougherty, 153 Pa.Super. 554, 559, 34 A.2d 918, 920 (1943)). Where, as here, taxpayers have failed to file timely appeals as prescribed by the applicable county assessment law, such statutorily prescribed remedy is lost beyond recall. Borough of Green Tree v. Board of Property Assessments, Appeals and Review of Allegheny County, 459 Pa. 268, 279, 328 A.2d 819, 824 (1974) (plurality); see also Academy Plaza Assoc., Ltd. v. Board of Revision of Taxes, City of Phila., 94 Pa.Cmwlth. 517, 520, 503 A.2d 1101, 1102-03 (1986) (noting that, pursuant to Mausoleum Constr., a court has no jurisdiction to resurrect the question of an exemption). Such a result is salutary because the revenue base of taxing bodies should not be left open indefinitely to retrospective claims. Mausoleum Constr., 55 Pa.Cmwlth. at 509, 423 A.2d at 812. [17]