The legal paperwork may determine who owes and pays the Assessment, but the end result should be the same any way it is done (assuming the Assessment is entirely for improvements)
If the Assessment belongs to the seller, this is how I see it:
You will purchase it for $336,000. That is your Basis, that is the seller's sales price.
However, because the Assessment belongs to the seller, it is as if the seller is paying off the Assessment. That means the seller's Basis in the property increases by $46,000 (assuming the entire Assessment is for improvements), which effectively gives the same result for the seller (the same result as if the seller's Basis was NOT increased by the Assessment, but with a selling price of $280,000).
Does that make sense?
