Suffolk County Property Tax Grievance Filings - Small Window of Opportunity

Generally speaking, the fair market value of both residential and commercial property throughout New York State has decreased over the past few years. One would think that the Suffolk County assessor's would realize how the economy has adversely affected the local real estate values and thus lower tax assessments accordingly. No such luck. For the vast majority of properties in Suffolk County, the assessments have remained the same over the past several years. Making matters worse, although assessments have not decreased, tax rates have increased. Property owners and tax paying tenants must resort to tax certiorari proceedings in an effort to reduce their tax burden.

On May 1, 2012, the tax assessments for the Ten Towns in Suffolk County, NY will be published. Complaints to each of the town assessors can only be filed from May 1, 2012 through May 17, 2012. A word to the wise, have your Suffolk County tax assessment evaluated on May 1, 2012. Compare the market value the assessor "guesses" to the amount you would expect to receive on a sale of your property. If your assessment is appropriate, celebrate and make a donation to your favorite charity! However, if your assessment is too high, you must file a complaint with your assessor within the two week period listed above. If your property is in a Village, keep in mind a separate examination will need to be done for your Village tax assessment as the Village assessor's market value might be vastly different from the Town assessor's market value.

Beware, once the deadline passes, the assessment will be set in stone and the tax rate increase will not be known until the December bill.

Richard G. Fromewick is the Chair of the Tax Certiorari & Condemnation Law Practice at Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C.

GREAT ASSESSMENT NEWS!

Most municipalities, including Nassau County, assess properties at a fraction of its estimated fair market value. The Nassau County Assessor has claimed for the past several years to be assessing commercial properties at 1% of its fair market value. However, we have just entered into an agreement with the Nassau County Attorney’s Office to negotiate the 2011/12 and 2012/13 assessments as though the assessments are based on .905% of the actual fair market value.

What exactly does this mean?

If a property is assessed at 10,000, the County Assessor’s website would claim a fair market value of $1,000,000. However, due to the agreement mentioned above, the County Attorney’s Office will negotiate tax reduction proceedings as if the property is assessed as worth $1,105,000.

Thus, if the property is really worth $1,000,000, and the County agrees to negotiate as if the property is assessed at $1,105,000, then the taxpayer would get a 10% reduction in assessment to bring their estimated fair market value down to $1,000,000.

The moral of this story … there is more than one way … to get a tax reduction.

NASSAU REAL ESTATE TAX ASSESSMENTS IN TURMOIL

Many Nassau County tax assessments have been reduced, but beware! Tax rates will have to be increased to meet the budgets. Almost daily we see a news story or opinion article on the outdated and broken Nassau County real estate tax assessment system. The probable take over of Nassau finances by NIFA (Nassau Interim Finance Authority) exacerbates the situation. Recently the County Executive announced a private appraisal firm would negotiate the real estate tax protests with the tens of thousands of homeowners complaining about their assessments. The administrative review of the commercial cases has all but stopped. There is a lot going on but so far the system has become more complicated and cumbersome. Maybe that's the plan.