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PORT CHESTER, N.Y. - Rye Town announced in a statement late Tuesday evening that the municipality has settled its long running dispute with Home Depot regarding the Port Chester merchant's property tax evaluation.
The dispute began when the Home Depot's Westchester-based local attorney advised the Port Chester outlet that Rye Town was evaluating their property over $180 million more than the Town's assessment from 2003-2011. According to the lawyer, the property should have been assessed at about 14% of the Town's original figures.
Rye Town Supervisor Carvin accused the attorney of providing bad advice and attempting to "game the system" as they were not able to corroborate their claims with proper documentation. Ultimately Carvin believes it was the Town's decision to communicate with the Home Depot's senior management that got the issue resolved.
"When we contacted Home Depot headquarters, we explained to them that their local counsel was gaming the system and that our administration would not stand for that," Carvin released in a statement. "To their credit Home Depot realized that they had been poorly advised by local counsel and then did the right thing."
According to Carvin, the Home Depot discovered upon closer review that there were only two years, 2007 and 2008, with potential discrepancies and chose to withdraw their challenges on the seven other years.
Because the Town felt that the organization was acting in "good faith", it granted the Home Depot the newly contested $2.5 million.
Supervisor Carvin stated he was pleased with the results.
"Home Depot's decision to act in good faith saved the Town from having to spend money on appraisers and court time on lawyers," Carvin said. "Much more importantly, the taxpayers in the Town of Rye won out because if we had lost the case, each and every municipality and the schools would have had to come up with money to reimburse Home Depot the taxes that were paid out."
Carvin ended by commending the Home Depot for it cooperation.
"So in the end we want to salute the good people at Home Depot headquarters and want to thank them for doing the right thing at the end of the day."
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