Real Property Assessment Reviews

New York State Property Taxes and Assessments

Real estate assessments are used by municipalities to calculate property taxes. The assessed value of the property, which is determined by the assessor, is multiplied by the taxing jurisdiction’s tax rate, the Mill Rate, to determine the tax due. Assessments are determined annually and can be grieved each year, but only at particular times and only by following prescribed procedures.

Photographer Vincent Woolley

Bases for Grieving an Assessment

Owners and, in some cases, tenants of real estate located in New York State can grieve the assessment on their property if they believe they have been unequally assessed, excessively assessed, unlawfully assessed, or the property has been misclassified.

An unequal assessment occurs when a property is assessed at a higher percentage of value than the average of all other parcels, or all other residential properties, in the municipality on the particular year’s assessment roll.

An assessment is deemed excessive if all property in the municipality is assessed at 100% of market value but the subject parcel is assessed at a value greater than full market value, or the owner was improperly denied a property tax exemption that it applied for, or the exemption was calculated incorrectly, or a transition assessment on the property was incorrectly calculated in a jurisdiction that uses homestead and non-homestead tax rates.

Unlawful assessments occur when:

• a property that should be exempt from taxation is wrongfully taxed;
• the property is located completely outside the boundaries of the municipality for which the assessment roll was prepared;
• the property was assessed by someone other than the assessor;
• the assessment was entered or changed after the assessor filed the tentative assessment roll for the municipality; or
• it is excessively assessed special franchise-public utility property in the public right-of-way.

An assessment may also be contested if the subject parcel is misclassified by a municipality which uses homestead and non-homestead tax rates.

Photographer Vincent Woolley

Assessment Review Procedure

An owner or tenant must grieve the assessment in a timely manner. In most communities outside the New York City metropolitan area, "Grievance Day" is usually the fourth Tuesday in May, but the taxpayer should check with the assessor or clerk in the applicable city, town or village to make certain of that community’s date. If the property owner or tenant grieves the assessment, they or their attorney must file a written complaint on an appropriate form, with proof of value, with the municipality’s board of assessment review on or before Grievance Day. Proof of value usually consists of a professionally prepared real estate appraisal which, depending on the type of property involved, may value the property based on comparable sales, income capitalization techniques, or replacement cost new less depreciation.

If the requested relief is granted or an agreement regarding value is entered into by the assessor and the owner and is approved by the board of assessment review, then nothing further needs to be done. Should the board of assessment review deny the relief requested, however, then one of two options is open to the property owner. Property owners who live in their own one, two or three dwelling unit residential properties, and owners of unimproved parcels of limited size, can appeal the decision of the board of assessment review in a Small Claims Assessment Review proceeding. Small claims proceedings are informally run, (although proof of value is still required), so homeowners can represent themselves and avoid having to employ a lawyer. Owners of commercial, industrial, special franchise and public utility property, high value residential properties, and some vacant parcels, however, don't have this option. They must appeal the assessment by instituting a tax certiorari proceeding in the New York Supreme Court pursuant to Article 7 of the Real Property Tax Law. Property owners and commercial tenants pursuing Article 7 relief usually hire a lawyer to represent them because of the nature of the proceeding.

Legal Services

Glens Falls lawyer Neil H. Lebowitz represents property owners, commercial tenants, and municipalities in assessment review proceedings. Lebowitz can assist clients with:

• Determining whether the property is excessively assessed or there exists some other basis for challenging the assessment.
• Negotiating a pre-Grievance Day stipulation of value with the assessor and, in the absence of a negotiated solution, representing the property owner or tenant in an administrative proceeding before the board of assessment review and in any tax certiorari appeal to the New York State Supreme Court.

For More Information

For representation in a contested New York State real property tax law assessment review proceeding, call or write the Glens Falls law office of Neil H. Lebowitz.