scpetition_valuation.pdf
Kazimierz Alfred Skoszen Petitioner V Township Of Clinton Respondent · 26-002286-TT
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 1 of 8 PROPERTY TAX APPEAL PETITION FORM VALUATION / UNCAPPING APPEAL MTT DOCKET NO. Petitioner’s Contact Information: Filer Type: Individual Local Unit of Government: First Name KAZIMIERZ M.I. ALFRED Last Name SKOCZEN Mailing Address (No., Street, P.O. Box or Rural Route) 38956 Golfview Drive West City or Town Clinton Township State Michigan ZIP Code 48038 Telephone Number 5864577347 E-mail Address kazaskoczen@yahoo.com Subject Property Information: How many parcels are you appealing? 1 If you are appealing more than one parcel, are they contiguous or adjoining? *If no, you must file separate appeals for each parcel N/A Property Address (No., Street) 38956 Golfview Drive West City or Town Clinton Township County Macomb State Michigan ZIP Code 48038 Taxing Authority (City or Township) Township Of Clinton (MACOMB) Check which of the following you are appealing: (check all that apply) True Cash and Taxable Values Please Explain the Reason for this Appeal:
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 2 of 8 Received NOTICE OF NO ACTION, after sending my original appeal letter by regular mail with attached documents and all explanations of actions taken at the local Assessor's Office and Board of Review. I was advised by the Tribunal Clerk and after visiting for the 4th time recently the Assessors' Office to refile the Appeal again using the e-filing system and this Tax Tribunal Form. Here is the copy of my original Appeal Letter, plus all the relevent documentation and correspondence I'v had with the Charter Township of Clinton Assessor: 04-22-2026 From: Skoczen Kazimierz 38956 Golfview Dr. West Clinton Township, MI 48038 This is my Principal Residence Parcel # 16-11-20-128-116 38956 Golfview To: Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Michigan Tax Tribunal PO Box 30232 Lansing, MI 48909 Subject: Appeal to the decision of the Board of Review - copy of which is attached to this letter. On March 10, 2026, at 2:40 PM, I appeared at the scheduled meeting with the Board of Review that was held in the Clinton Township Civic Center. I showed up before the Board not to dispute the 2026 Tentative Amount Taxable Value and Assessed Value of my condominium, but the one for the prior year – the 2025 Notice of Assessment done or signed by the Assessor named - James H. Elrod. I wanted to question that year’s increase in value by $ 8,200. - due to partially finished basement, I was told by a female employee, while personally visiting the Assessor’s Office, a couple of days after receiving this notice. That lady behind the desk explained to me at that time, that the increase in value is the result of the new finding from the documents excessed by the Assessor from Real Estate Agency, which listed the condo for sale, that there is a half-finished basement in this property. The reason I wanted to dispute this increase in value was and still is that the half-finished basement was damaged since the pictures were taken and promoted by the Real Estate Agency and even now, after the repairs done by myself to the damaged tiles on the floor and cracks in the unfinished floor at the laundry area is still useless, as during the almost 2.5 years of my owning this condo, the basement was 3 times flooded from the backup city storm drains through the floor drains. This is a reoccurring problem in the area as all my neighbors experience routinely those partial floodings every year during the heavy rain storms. One of my next- door neighbors, Dolores Piersol, has written to me in 2025, that during her 30 years of living here, her basement was flooded 18 times. I showed the members of the Board her e-mail about it. My back-wall neighbor, Ellen McGillis, that has a sump-pump installed in her basement many years ago by the Association, that should serve all other 8 units inside the building nr 16, when the water on the streets hits the height of only up to 5-10 inches, her basement also gets flooded the same way as in all other units, plus the rest of the entire neighborhood. Sump-pump doesn’t handle the water that backs up to the streets due to bad or inappropriate street sewer pipelines that are too small, clogged or narrow that the heavy rain causes the bottle-neck backups to the streets and neighboring community basements. This is a permanent situation here, not a short-time “natures force”, a common explanation by the management of the Crosswinds East Condominium Association. The basement as it is now, I use mainly only for storage because of the constant threat of new flooding. Most of my items of value that I store there are set on the plastic 10-inch-high palettes. The city or the county has to fix first the clogged and narrow storm system pipes before they can assess additional tax charges for our basements. As I mentioned it already above, the management of our Crosswinds East Condominium Association instead of putting pressures on the city or county to fix the street sewer backup problems, each time the flooding occurs in our basements they make this silly excuse calling it a natural nature’s happening, to which there is no solution. And the Assessors from the local city office punish those owners like myself by assessing extra taxable value on the property we own, which in reality has no value.
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 3 of 8 I have made personally several complaints with the City of Clinton Twp. Water Department, the Assessors Office and even the Supervisor, Paul Gieleghem, who personally acknowledged the problem and encouraged me to go in front of the Board of Review. In 2025 I scheduled an appointment with the Board for March 10, 2025, but I couldn’t make it then, because my emergency trip overseas at the same time. Unfortunately, the Board meets only in March every year. So, this was the reason I could not address the problem that year. However, during this year’s meeting with the Board, I had plenty of evidence with me in my hands to present my case, but the Board gave me only 5 minutes to state my case, which I still stretched by about 2-3 minutes by returning to the room with another piece of written explanation. I left them with a lot of vocal arguments and a couple of copies of written documents directed originally to my Association. The Board listened carefully and seemed to agree with me on all my accounts. I was quite negatively surprised, when 10 days later, I received this attached document from the Assessor’s Office, Elizabeth Schwartz, the Assessor, informing me that my request for reduction was denied due to insufficient evidence provided. What a bummer! To me this is a clear case of ignorance or even fraud on the part of the city and/or county employees who assess the value of residential properties. It is very clear to me who’s interests they represent - the local city/county workers unions and politicians, and not the taxpayer who they should be working for. Lately, I heard a politician on TV who’s running for the office of the Governor in the State of Michigan, bringing up among other things in his campaign speech the subject of Michigan Property Taxes, saying this is a scam on the part of the cities and counties who assess the tax values of the properties. Counties, he says, assess homes in bulk using automated models, exaggerated information, pictures and the sale prices from the real estate agencies. He says average sale prices of seemingly the same home in the area are never the same, so errors are common and cities and counties don’t proactively fix them. They actually benefit from these errors, because it means more tax revenue for them. In my personal view the term “scam” is a weak description of what is going on. To me it borders with a criminal activity! I bought this condominium in Clinton Township ~ 2.5 years ago for $160,000. -. I went above the list price and overpaid, as the market was tight. I spent even more money on repairs and remodeling main floor quarters and bathroom. I would never buy it though, if it was disclosed at the time of closing that there are permanent water problems coming out from basement walls and floor drains. The woman that sold it to me, when contacted later through her agent, claimed she was not aware of this problem, as she lives in Canada, and the man who was her boyfriend she met on travel overseas trips, who lived here, before he died, gave this condo to her in his Last Will. And for all of these undisclosed situations, while trying to fix the problem on my own, I’m being punished in addition by the city/county taxation system that raises my property valuations to levels I will never be going to sell my condo for, if the city storm sewers are not fixed. Thank you for your time and attention to these “disclosures” of mine! I hope I am clear here and my request for reduction of at least the portion of the valuation for the partially finished basement will be accepted. Sincerely, Kazimierz A Skoczen 38956 Golfview Dr. West Clinton Township, MI 48038 Bldg. #16 e-mail: kazaskoczen@yahoo.com tel. (586) 457-7347 cc:\ 1) Paul Gieleghem, Supervisor, Clinton Township, 40700 Romeo Plank Road, Clinton Twp., MI 48038-2900 2) Juanita Merling, Customized Property Management, Managing Agent for Crosswinds East Condominium Association, PO Box 1419, Sterling Heights, MI 48311 ------------------------------------ This letter was never sent to Governor, but was brought to the attention of Elizabeth Schwartz, Assessor, and Sypervisor, Paul Gieleghem, both of whom I met personally in representation of myself and my elderly neighbours, who are all in advanced ages and unwilling or scared to fight the problems of getting water in their basements directly in the city or county offices. Here it goes >>>
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 4 of 8 Office of Governor Gretchen Whitmer P.O. Box 30013 Lansing, MI 48909 05-05-2026 To: Gretchen Whitmer, Governor, State of Michigan Subject: A complaint about the treatment I received first by the Board of Review, then from the Michigan Tax Tribunal after writing an appeal letter as advised in the Notice of Denial from the Charter Township of Clinton Assessor’s Office. My name is Kazimierz Skoczen, I have received by mail a “Notice of No Action”, sent to me by Tribunal Clerk from the Michigan Tax Tribunal (MTT) office in Lansing, in return for my mailing an appeal letter to the negative decision of the 2026 Board of Review pertaining my request for a reduction in the City of Clinton Township Assessor’s Taxable Valuation and Assessed Value on my condominium due to a perpetual flooding situation I and my neighbors experience that involves my half-finished basement, caused by inappropriate city run storm sewer system. I am not a lawyer; I am a private tax paying citizen. In the “Notice of No Action” I received, the Tribunal Clerk (no name given) has sent me back the letter I wrote with copies of documents attached to it plus the original envelope it was sent in. She or he is giving me a suggestion to file again an appeal on official form and pay a fee, as if though I was a lawyer representing officially a company or a lawyer’s fee-paying person for this service. I am not hiring any lawyers as I am not rich enough for this luxury. I want to represent myself directly, as I believe I have the right to do just that as a citizen of the country that promotes the freedom of speech. I have collected and sent to MTT office properly backed real evidence to make logical disputes heard. I read the Tribunal Rules online the Tribunal clerk refers to and learned I can appeal this action without prompting any legal activity pertaining to this issue. This case is simple. All that is required here is the ability to logical thinking and a willingness to serve the people. Thank you for your attention! Sincerely, Kazimierz (Kaz) Skoczen 38956 Golfview Drive West Clinton Township MI 48038 e-mail: kazaskoczen@yahoo.com tel. (586) 457-7347 Ps. Below you will find my original letter of request sent to Michigan Tax Tribunal, as well a copy of the “Notice of No Action”. ------------------------------------ This letter was sent by e-mail in response to Elizabeth Schwartz's telephone message left in my mail box: 05-11-2026 From: Skoczen Kazimierz 38956 Golfview Dr. West Clinton Township, MI 48038 e-mail: kazaskoczen@yahoo.com This is my Principal Residence Parcel # 16-11-20-128-116 38956 Golfview To: Charter Township of Clinton Elizabeth Schwartz, Assessor 40700 Romeo Plank Rd.
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 5 of 8 Clinton Township, MI 48038-2900 e-mail: assessor@clintontownship.com Subject: On Friday, May 08, 2026 at 3:02PM, Assessor Beth Schwartz, left this voice message on my phone: [15862869468 Deposited a new message: "Hi, this is Beth, the Clinton Township assessor, uh, calling you about after our meeting this past Wednesday. You know, I spoke with, uh, there's a few issues here, so I spoke with the public services people about the water and the drain issues at Crosslands East, and it's private property, so all of the streets in the storm water is not within township jurisdiction. The township couldn't fix any of that if they wanted to. You have to talk with the management company. So all of the storm sewers and the streets in there and any surface water issue is only the responsibility and the jurisdiction of the management company, so you'd have to keep following up with them. Uh, 2, with the tribunal petition, uh, you just didn't file a petition form, so your letter could be attached to a form, but you have to file a petition and you've got to get a hold of them if you want their help, uh, doing that, and you, you do that with the Michigan tax tribunal. And 3 about the finished basement that we have, I talked to an appraiser here and she said she spoke to you twice about getting some proof that it's been removed. So, we don't really want to do a site visit, but if you want to send some pictures or video showing that your basement is no longer finished, we can remove that from the assessment. If you have any questions, give our office a call 586-286-9468. Thank you." Click here: 14699825002 to listen to full voice message.] 05-11-2026 Dear Ms. Elizabeth Schwartz, I got your voice mail response to my questions and enquiries expressed at the end of the meeting and those stated in the letter I gave you after the “Conversations Forum” ended last Wednesday, May 6-th, at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library South Branch! Please let me tell you something, the part of your recorded answer pertaining the problematical street storm sewer system being on the private property of the Crosswinds East Condominium, is the same as the city officials tried on me before. That is the easiest way of washing off hands from responsibility, which I received before from the City Water Department and Assessors Office employees. The street sewer lines are inadequate and plucked somewhere past the Crosswinds East Condominium private property. Inadequate and blocked (plucked) sewer lines are a serious issue that often stem from aging infrastructure, tree root intrusion, or structural failures - according to my Google enquires. When these systems cannot handle the load, they require professional intervention by the city or county governments. Besides, the city and the county, are the ones taking from me and other local neighbors the enormously high property taxes, not the Association. Taking from an old and single citizen a high tax for the property that amounts to ~ $280, calculated on a monthly basis, on the property of only ~ 980 square feet plus half-finished basement is not only a rip-off or scam, as some politicians running against current Michigan governor openly say, to me it looks like a criminal activity committed against the citizens of Michigan State. When you add to it another ~ $286 for the association fee to the Crosswinds East property management and additional ~ $30 charge for home insurance, the cost of living here for a retire is astronomical. According to national news agencies, car insurance rates in Michigan are also the highest in the nation. Why do I even mention this here? Because to me, what I experience is an exploitation and punishment as if living in the totalitarian system. I am an old citizen living off on retirement benefits only. I heard, some municipalities in Michigan charge even higher property taxes on its citizens. This is a crime against humanity. Government entities don’t need to be so big and bureaucratic as if in socialism, to justify its size to run smoothly their services for citizens. This would be unheard off even in the communist country, from which I defected 45 years ago and was given political asylum by the then American President, Ronald Reagan. Why you don’t even want to accept the facts, that even if the basement is half-finished, the risks of it being flooded are so persistent and permanent? This should be easily and completely understood by a wise person like you, Beth Schwartz, the head of the Assessor’s Office in the City of Clinton Township. Ps. As for the Crosswinds East, the Association did in fact just recently rebuilt 3 large manholes to the storm sewers (rainwater) located in the middle of 3 main inside community roads, but this does not solve the problems of plucked and aging infrastructure further down the road exiting to the city/county sewer systems. The function as the "main highway" of the sewage system is to transport waste and water away from residential, commercial, and industrial properties. But during the heavy rainfalls, that rainwater as well as at times the sewage waste, gets pushed back into the residential basements through the crates in the floor. Yet the city Assessor and Treasurer forces on us, the suffering citizens, an additional tax for having partially finished basements. This situation is totally absurd and unjust! Pps.
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 6 of 8 Attached you will find two other document attachments and 8 pictures. The last 2 pics were taken after the latest flooding on June 16, 2025, after I fixed-up the basement floors for cracks and installed floor epoxy paint in the laundry room and the workshop room. Sincerely, Kazimierz A Skoczen 38956 Golfview Dr. West Clinton Township, MI 48038 Bldg. #16 e-mail: kazaskoczen@yahoo.com tel. (586) 457-7347 cc:\ 1) Paul Gieleghem, Supervisor, Clinton Township, 40700 Romeo Plank Road, Clinton Twp., MI 48038-2900 ; e-mail: p.gieleghem@clintontownship- mi.gov 2) Dr Mike Aiello, Treasurer, Charter Township of Clinton, 40700 Romeo Plank Road, Clinton Twp., MI 48038-2900 ; e-mail: treasurer@clintontownship.com 3) Juanita Merling, Customized Property Management, Managing Agent for Crosswinds East Condominium Association, PO Box 1419, Sterling Heights, MI 48311 e-mail: jmerling@cpmsupport.com --------------------------------------- Thank you for your attention! I don't know how to attach to this Form the copies of my prior Assessment Notices, the Denial to my Request of Reduction after Board of Review Decision, received from the Assessor's Office, plus all the pictures of flooded streets and parts of my basement. Sincerely, Kazimierz A Skoczen
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 7 of 8 Jurisdictional Issues: Did you protest the assessment at a Board of Review? Yes If Yes, check which Board of Review you attended: March If No, please check the applicable reason(s): Year(s) Under Appeal: 2025 Valuation Information for Each Parcel under Appeal: Parcel Number: 16-11-20-128-116 Classification of Property: Personal (check one) Residential (check one) Current Assessed Value as established by the Board of Review: 85700 Current Taxable Value as established by the Board of Review: 79284 What do you believe is the fair market value? 165000 Multiply the True Cash Value by .5 and enter here. This is your contention of Assessed Value. 82500 If you believe the Taxable Value differs from your contention of Assessed Value, enter your contention of Taxable Value. Electronic Signature *Typing your name below will serve as your signature Petitioner’s Signature: /s/ Kazimierz A Skoczen Attorney or Authorized Agent’s Signature: /s/ Fee Information:
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STATE OF MICHIGAN GRETCHEN WHITMER GOVERNOR DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS LANSING MARLON I. BROWN, DPA DIRECTOR 8 of 8 If you do not have a Principal Residence Exemption of at least 50% at the time of the filing of this petition, you are required to pay a filing fee for the filing of this appeal. The filing fee is based on the greater of State Equalized Value or Taxable Value in contention. If you are appealing more than one parcel, the parcel with the highest State Equalized Value or Taxable Value in contention will be used to determine your filing fee, plus $25.00 will be added for each additional parcel being appealed. Property tax appeal: Residential** Non-Residential SEV or TV in contention* Filing fee*** Filing Fee** $100,000 or less...........................................................................................$ 125.00 $250.00 $100,000.01 to $500,000.00.........................................................................$ 200.00 N/A More than $500,000…..................................................................................$ 300.00 N/A Does the subject property have a principal residence exemption of at least 50% as of the date of the filing of this petition? Yes