Legal Definitions - erroneous assessment

An erroneous assessment refers to an official determination, valuation, or calculation that contains a mistake, is incorrect, or is based on faulty information. This error can lead to an unfair or inaccurate outcome, such as an incorrect tax bill, an undervalued property, or an improper penalty.

Here are some examples illustrating an erroneous assessment:

• Property Tax Bill: Imagine a local tax assessor mistakenly includes a portion of a public park in the property valuation for Ms. Chen's residential home. As a result, Ms. Chen receives a property tax bill that is significantly higher than it should be, based on land she does not own.

  This is an erroneous assessment because the official valuation of her property, which dictates her tax liability, is incorrect due to the inclusion of land that is not hers.

• Insurance Claim Payout: Following a severe hailstorm, Mr. Davies files a claim for damage to his roof. The insurance company's adjuster inspects the roof but, due to an oversight, misses significant structural damage beneath the shingles. The adjuster then provides an official estimate for repairs that is far too low to cover the actual cost of restoring the roof.

  The insurance company's determination of the repair costs is an erroneous assessment because it fails to account for all the actual damage, leading to an insufficient payout for the policyholder.

• Government Fine: A state regulatory agency issues a substantial fine to a small business for allegedly violating waste disposal regulations. The fine was based on a laboratory report that incorrectly identified a harmless substance as a hazardous pollutant due to a calibration error in the testing equipment.

  The agency's official determination of the violation and the resulting fine constitutes an erroneous assessment because the penalty was levied based on incorrect scientific data, meaning the business was wrongly accused and penalized.