Nassau County Assessment Review Offer of Reduction

The Assessment Review Commission is sending out offers to reduce the assessment for the 2020/21 tax year based on 1% of value.  Most of the offers that I have reviewed are not good offers and should be rejected. A petition should be filed in April for a hearing. The assessment for 2020/21 being set at a lower assessment is not necessarily a fair market value. The only way to know is to do the math and compare the 2019/20 assessment which was calculated at only .6% of value.  The 2020/21 assessment at 1% of value is a whole different value.

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Let the taxpayer be aware!

Who Has The Legal Right To Protest The Real Estate Tax?

The New York State Court of Appeals has narrowed the permissible class of taxpayers authorized to grieve the real estate taxes on any property in New York.  Merely paying the taxes is not enough.  The taxpayer, other than the owner, must have the contractual obligation to pay the taxes as well as directly paying the taxes.

Merely being a triple net tenant is not enough.  Tenants must insist on appropriate terms in their lease if they want the right to protest the taxes.

New Assessments and Increased Rates

The 2019/20 school tax bills are out and have mostly increased over the last year.  The new 2021 assessments will be out in January 2020. 

Complaints to the new assessments must be made by February 28, 2020.  We expect the 2020 tax rates to increase next year by 20% or more since there were so many complaints to the revaluations assessments.

It’s a complicated system that requires the taxpayer to complain about the new assessments in January of each year, although the taxes based on that assessment will not be known for almost two years later.

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The taxpayer must protest or pay on the new assessment without knowing what the taxes will be!

Nassau Real Estate Taxes – Going Up Again

You might have received a notice that your real estate taxes will be lower in 2020 – don’t count on it.  Since the 2020/21 re-assessment was made there have been thousands of protests/complaints/grievances and corrections.  It is already too late to complain about the taxes and assessment for next year.

Tax rates will have to increase to offset the many assessment reductions that will be made.  

Be ready to file a complaint to the new assessment that will be ready in January 2020.  By the way, the County is dismissing complaints that have unreadable signatures unless they are corrected within 35 days of a notice to dismiss for a “defective authorization”.

If Nassau Tax Assessment is Wrong - You Can File for Correction

With the 420,000 plus reassessments, there were bound to be many errors. Well, the Assessor’s office outdid themselves and there are hundreds of out-and-out mistakes.

Petitions to correct market value judgment calls have already been filed. However, we can file applications to correct mistakes throughout the year. A typical mistake would be a property with 1/2 acre mistakenly coded as 2 acres, a 3 family residence incorrectly coded as a 4 unit commercial rooming house; a commercial industrial building mistakenly coded as fully rented although it is vacant. Mistakes happen and that is why the application to correct errors must be made before the tax bills are prepared for next year.

2020/21 Nassau Re-Assessment Woes

It is shocking how many times a day prospective clients complain about the market value increases on their commercial or residential property. The protest period is now.

Actually, the increase or decrease in assessment or market value is relatively unimportant.  What is vital is the new market value and how it compares to reality. That is why you need to have an expert compare the re-assessment value with what the property is worth for TAX ASSESSMENT PURPOSES.  Building a very expensive home should not be assessed at that cost if it is out of line with the average values of homes in the area.  A retail store should not be assessed based on its lease if it is a franchise property and assessed much higher than locally owned similar size stores.

Assessments are supposed to be uniform and true to market values; the current re-assessment has placed many properties outside of the proper valuation.

Taxes are Up - Market Values are Up

Welcome to January 2019 and the new Nassau tax bill and the re-assessment for commercial and residential properties for 2020/21. You might find this hard to believe, but (you knew there was a but coming); the notice you received before the New Year is not necessarily correct. The assessor made thousands of changes, so far.

The only way to know what the proposed assessment will be for 2020/21 is to check the January 2, 2019 assessment roll. Even then you will not know the tax impact for that new assessment. The tax rates for the 2019/20 assessments are not even close to being calculated. The 2020/21 tax bills are 22 months away! The only prudent approach is to have an expert check your new assessment to determine if a protest should be filed.