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Joshua S. Werbeck, Jana K. McDonald
Bousquet Holstein’s real estate and litigation attorneys represent property owners in challenges to municipal assessments of real property, which is known as tax certiorari.
If you or your business own real property that the municipality has assessed too high, is assessing unequally to other properties, or is entitled to an exemption that the municipality incorrectly denied, you should consider challenging or grieving your assessment.
Please be aware of the following dates and deadlines:
- New York towns generally make their tentative/proposed assessments public on May 1st. This “tentative assessment roll” indicates the town’s proposed assessment of all real property in the town.
- To challenge an assessment, you must first administratively grieve the assessment with the town on or before “grievance day.” Grievance day is generally the fourth Tuesday in May, which is May 28th in 2019 (but grievance day could be another day so please contact us for more information).
- We typically obtain a professional appraisal of the real property for evidence in a grievance case. Accordingly, if you are considering filing a grievance, you should start working on an appraisal as soon as possible.
Please note that cities may have different grievance dates. Please contact us if you have property in a city and would like to challenge its assessment. Our firm can evaluate these cases individually.
Bousquet Holstein’s Real Estate Practice Group assists individuals and business in all real property matters, including purchases and sales, tax credit and tax exemption programs, leasing and landlord-tenant matters, title examination, and land use. if you would like assistance with challenging your real property’s assessment, or any other real estate questions, please contact Joshua S. Werbeck or Jana K. McDonald.