East Hampton and Southampton Towns have a formal process to determine the fairness of a homeowner’s property tax assessment. For those who paid taxes last year based on an assessment that looks high, this is a good time to do some research to find out if lowering your taxes is possible. The deadline to submit paperwork to the local assessor’s office is called Grievance Day, and this year it is May 17 for East Hampton and Southampton towns.
Taxes can be too high if the market value is lower than the assessed value, or if many similar properties have lower taxes because they are assessed at a percentage of market value, for example 90 percent.
Tax abatement firms mail offers at this time of year to encourage owners to apply for tax relief before the deadline, but there are straightforward ways individual property owners can apply directly to their town to have their taxes reduced without paying for help.
The first step to find out if a property tax is too high is to have your house appraised, or, if you have refinanced recently, to pull out that paperwork and look at the sales prices of houses similar to yours. A homeowner may also search online to see what homes with similar features have sold recently, and for what price.
If taxes on comparable properties are lower, that is a good indication that filing a grievance may be successful to achieve a lower tax bill. “The board doesn’t need to see more than three comps,” said Lisa Goree, sole assessor for Southampton Town, referring to comparable house sales. An assessment review board evaluates all grievances and considers the factors relative the property, including, she said, “if it’s waterfront.” Other factors include the year the house was built, total square feet, recent improvements and the size of the lot.
The best way to show an individual property tax is too high is a recent appraisal—“probably within the last year,” said Ms. Goree, who has been the Southampton assessor since 2014. Although all property owners in Southampton are subject to the same rules for lowering taxes, those who submit some proof, but still need to submit more, are allowed extra time only if they apply in person on tax Grievance Day. “For those taxpayers that sit down with the board, they are given a grievance number, and you have 10 days to submit,” Ms. Goree said.
Forms to apply to lower property taxes are available on the websites for each town. For Southampton, paperwork can be submitted by mail, email or in person on Grievance Day at one of two locations: St. Rosalie’s Catholic Church, Hampton Bays, or the Assessors Office, 116 Hampton Road, Southampton (check the website or call for office hours).
East Hampton Town provides detailed advice on its website, although as of April 6, the information was a year old, and the deadlines listed were for 2015. For those who need their current property value for tax assessment review purposes, the number is as of July 1, 2015. Write to the assessor’s office for that assessment, or check the tentative assessment roll to be released May 2, 2016, which will be available for review online or in that office.
Instructions on how to apply for judicial review with or without using a lawyer are also listed online. As in Southampton, even if the property is assessed at current market value, that tax may be too high if comparables in the same area show property assessed below market value. This is called unequal assessment. When the chair of assessors of the Town of East Hampton, Jeanne Nielsen, was asked if it is likely that similar properties have unequal assessment, she replied, “probably.” Proving this to be the case is much more difficult than proving your home is assessed at higher than market value.
Judicial review is done through “SCAR” or Small Claims Assessment Review (directions are on the Unified Court Systems website), or through State Supreme Court. The SCAR review process, at first glance daunting, requires filing paperwork by Grievance Day as the first step in negotiation between a homeowner and the town assessor.
After the form is filed with the assessor’s office, there is a 45-day waiting period, and Ms. Nielsen said the reply to a grievance will be received “on or before July 1.” Those who want to proceed with a SCAR petition should send the original petition and two copies with the clerk of Suffolk County. There is a $30 filing fee.
In conjunction with this mailing, additional copies of the SCAR petition should be sent (return receipt requested) to the town assessor’s office, the clerk of the local school district, the county treasurer and the clerk of the village, if necessary.
A personal appearance in Small Claims Court is unnecessary if the town assessor and property owner agree, through negotiation, on a fair assessment for property tax purposes.
“We received 2,168 grievances last year,” Ms. Nielsen said, and “1,200 went into SCAR.”
For do-it-yourselfers, saving a few hundred or a thousand dollars a year is well worth the time and effort the tax grievance process takes. For those who wish to avoid filling out forms and collecting proof, tax grievance companies offer to submit paperwork to the court, town and village, as needed. These firms typically take a commission based on the amount their work saves the property owner after the assessor makes a final decision. The companies are usually licensed, and with a licensed real estate appraiser on staff. Interviewing more than one firm is one way to determine how much it will cost to get outside help.
May 17 is the day by which paperwork must arrive at the assessor’s office—a postmark on that day is not sufficient. In Southampton, taxpayers are allowed to call for an appointment or show up in person and wait in line. Those who miss the deadline may begin collecting information to apply next year.
27east on Apr 18, 2016