EPPING, N.H. -- Jack and Beatrice Knight are hoping town selectmen will find a way around a New Hampshire law requiring them to pay property taxes on a house destroyed by fire last May.

The fire leveled the house, leaving nothing but the shell of the garage.

Despite the loss, the Knights recently got a tax bill for $6,360 as if the house was still standing.


Under state law, the owner must be taxed for the entire year if the house exists on April 1. Since the Knights' home burned May 23, they owe taxes on it.

Bob Boley, a property tax adviser for the state Department of Revenue Administration, said had the fire happened before April 1, and the couple rebuilt after that date, they would owe taxes only on the land.

He said the law works both ways -- sometimes to the taxpayers' advantage and sometimes not depending when the home is destroyed or torn down.

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that sucks for the owners! That is the problem with such rigid rules.