A company that leased a commercial property sold the operation to another company, but the municipality demanded that it continue to pay the city tax bills even though it had left the property.
The Court accepted the claim and obliged the company to pay city tax because it did not report the cessation of use of the property on time. The holder of a property will be exempt from its obligation to pay city tax only if it notified the municipality at the time of its departure that it has ceased to use the property. Here, the company that leased a commercial property and was registered as the holder in the municipality's books sold its activity to another company, including the right to use the property, without the knowledge of the owner of the property. The company chose not to give the municipality an explicit notice of cessation of use of the property in time, fearing that if notified, the municipality would contact the owner of the property for the payment of city tax, in a manner that could have jeopardize the transaction. The company gave notice regarding its departure only at the end of the tax year and therefore the company must pay the city tax until that time.