Guide to Tax Grievances in New York May 12, 2017

Introduction to Tax Grievances in NY

TO OUR CLIENTS:

At Rand Realty, we believe that service to our clients does not end just because you have closed on the purchase or sale of your home. Rather, most client need professional real estate services all the time, everything from keeping up-to-date on market news, changes in property values, or information on their local communities. That’s why, for example, we’ve put out Quarterly Market Reports and Seasonal Event Guides for our clients for over ten years.

In that spirit, we created The Guide to Grieving Your Property Taxes in Westchester and the Hudson Valley to provide you with a simple but comprehensive guide to challenging your property tax assessments. While we understand that our local communities need revenue to fund the schools and services that make our communities such desirable places to live, we also believe that property taxes should be fairly apportioned among property owners. In our experience, though, too many homeowners pay more than their fair share of property taxes because assessors have over-estimated their market value, and those high property taxes can become a tremendous financial burden. And for our current clients who are selling their homes, unreasonably high property taxes can become a challenge for selling at a fair price.

As this Guide explains, challenging your assessment and grieving your taxes is a complicated but manageable process. We are happy to help you in that effort, particularly by providing you with information on comparable sales that can help you determine your market value and support a case for lowering your assessment. We are also happy to help you if you would like an attorney to assist you in filing your grievance, which we believe is a good idea because of the difficulties of the process and also because most attorneys only collect a fee based on your savings if you are successful.

Here is what we have in the Guide:

  • Understanding the Property Tax Grievance Process: An explanation and overview of the entire process.
  • The Property Tax Grievance FAQ: Common questions and answers about the grievance process.
  • Three Steps to Grieving Your Taxes: Step-by-step instructions for determining market value, filling out your complaint, and writing your letter in support.
  • Five Reasons to Hire an Attorney to Represent You: An explanation why we recommend that you retain an attorney to represent you through the grievance process.
  • Grievance Day Deadline Summary: A review of all the deadlines for filing your tax grievance throughout Westchester and the Hudson Valley.

Under separate cover, you can also get the Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty Property Tax Grievance Municipality Guide, which contains detailed information on each municipality, including contact information, tax grievance deadlines, and more.

If you would like our help providing you with market information on comparable sales that can help you challenge your assessment, or if you would like us to connect you with an experienced grievance attorney, just contact your Rand Realty agent. If you do not have an agent, then just contact us at 845-825-8047 and we’ll take good care of you.

Good luck, and best wishes.

Yours,
The Rand Family

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