§ 4461. Time and manner of appeal

(a) A taxpayer or the selectboard members of a town aggrieved by a decision of the board of civil authority under subchapter 1 of this chapter may appeal the decision of the board to either the Director or the Superior Court of the county in which the property is located. The appeal to the Superior Court shall be heard without a jury. The appeal to either the Director or the Superior Court shall be commenced by filing a notice of appeal pursuant to Rule 74 of the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure within 30 days after entry of the decision of the board of civil authority. The date of mailing of notice of the board’s decision by the town clerk to the taxpayer shall be deemed the date of entry of the board’s decision. The town clerk shall transmit a copy of the notice to the Director or to the Superior Court as indicated in the notice and shall record or attach a copy of the notice in the grand list book. The entry fee for an appeal to the Director is $70.00; provided, however, that the Director may waive, reduce, or refund the entry fee in cases of hardship or to join appeals regarding the same parcel. If, in the opinion of the Director, an appeal under this subsection involves a complex or unique property or valuation that would be best adjudicated by the Superior Court, the Director may decline to assign a property valuation hearing officer pursuant to section 4465 of this title and shall forward the appeal to the Superior Court where it shall be heard. An appeal forwarded by the Director under this subsection shall be considered timely filed in the Superior Court if it was timely appealed to the Director.

(b) On or before the last day on which appeals may be taken from the decision of the board of civil authority, an agent designated by the legislative body of the town, in the name of the town, on written application of one or more taxpayers of the town whose combined grand list represents at least three percent of the grand list of the town for the preceding year, shall appeal to the Superior Court from any action of the board of civil authority not involving appeals of the applying taxpayers. However, the agent designated by the legislative body shall, in any event, have at least six business days after receipt of such taxpayers’ application for appeal in which to take the appeal, and the date for the taking of such appeal shall accordingly be extended, if necessary, until the six business days shall have elapsed. The $70.00 entry fee shall be paid by the applicants with respect to each individual property thus being appealed that is separately listed in the grand list.

(c) [Repealed.]

(d) Fees collected under this section shall be credited to a special fund established and managed pursuant to chapter 7, subchapter 5 of this title and shall be available to the Department of Taxes to offset the costs of providing those services. (Added 1969, No. 253 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1971, No. 185 (Adj. Sess.), § 217, eff. March 29, 1972; 1973, No. 193 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 9, 1974; 1977, No. 66; 1977, No. 105, § 14(a); 1979, No. 177 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 1983, No. 201 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. April 27, 1984; 1993, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 1997, No. 59, § 12, eff. June 30, 1997; 1997, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 21a, eff. Jan. 1, 1998; 1999, No. 49, § 45, eff. June 2, 1999; 2005, No. 202 (Adj. Sess.), § 8; 2017, No. 11, § 58; 2019, No. 51, § 3, eff. June 10, 2019; 2019, No. 84 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 2021, No. 163 (Adj. Sess.), § 5, eff. June 1, 2022.)