ROCKLAND, Maine — The owners of the historic Talbot Home contend the city has grossly overassessed the property and are asking for an abatement.
Michael Laposta and Cheryl Michaelsen say during the past year, the 73 Talbot Ave. property has been a single-family residence and as such is dramatically overassessed by the city. The couple have asked the city to reduce the $577,600 assessment on the Talbot Home by $302,600. With the current tax rate, that would reduce the tax bill on the property by $6,415.
The abatement request has not been scheduled for the Rockland Board of Assessment Review.
The couple purchased the 73 Talbot Ave. home in December 2014 for $255,000. The 12-room Victorian-style home, which the couple is converting to a bed and breakfast, had been a home for elderly residents for 51 years until it closed in July 2014.
The couple own the adjacent Berry Manor Inn, which its website said is one of the premiere luxury Maine coast inns in the Rockland/Camden area. TripAdvisor called the Berry Manor Inn one of the 25 best bed-and-breakfast inns in the United States.
Laposta and Michaelsen had originally planned to make the Talbot Home their residence but later decided that its best use would be as a bed-and-breakfast. The couple applied for a permit to make the Talbot Home a four-room bed-and-breakfast. Construction for the dining area of the Talbot Home is expected to be done by the end of the month, according to code enforcement records.
The abatement request, however, is for the past year when it was simply a single-family residence.
“We contend the subject property is a ‘white elephant.’ It is a unique property for which there is no other property in Rockland that compares or can be deemed ‘similar,’ as there is no other single family residential home with as much square footage, that is as old or is as limited in commercial use being in residential A zone,” the couple stated in their appeal to the board.
The home has 6,600 square feet of living space. Laposta and Michaelsen said applying a per-square-foot value to a home to determine its taxable value does make sense at some point.
“As a 156-year-old historic structure located in a dense, residential neighborhood without water views, excessive land or privacy, there comes a point where excessive square footage is not as valuable in a residence,” they stated.