Get Ready to Grieve Your Taxes

First and very importantly, YOU DO NOT NEED TO HIRE A LAWYER OR A PROFESSIONAL PROPERTY TAX SERVICE TO SUCCESSFULLY GRIEVE YOUR TAXES. The process for many is very straightforward and simple and it pains us on the Board when we see how many residents have paid thousands of dollars UNNECESSARILY in fees to professionals for five minutes of work that they could have done themselves. The easiest case is if you have purchased your house within the last year or two in an arm’s length transaction where the property has been openly listed on MLS. If your purchase price is below the fair market equivalent of your assessed value on the tentative assessment roll, in most cases we will reduce your valuation to reflect the assessed value indicated by the purchase price. If you have owned your home for a while, supply us with a honest independent appraisal from avery good local appraiser who knows the Scarsdale real estate market and we will seriously consider that appraisal.

You should know that most property tax services do not supply us with adequate evidence at the Board of Assessment Review stage. They either supply no evidence or just a couple of unsupported “comps.” That’s why about 80 percent of grievances are denied by the Board of Assessment Review. The “game” these firms play is to go through the motions at the required BAR stage and then appeal to the Small Claims Assessment Review Judge where most claims settle. Then, they settle a stack of cases with our Assessor. By trying to overwhelm our Assessor with cases, they generally get reductions, but smaller ones than they would have on the good cases and a small nuisance reduction on the bogus cases just to get them off the Assessor’s docket.

Here’s my advice. The real estate market is weak in Scarsdale this year, especially at the high end. If you think your house is overvalued on the assessment roll, speak to one of your realtor friends — everyone has many. If they agree, find a good local appraiser and ask the appraiser for a ballpark estimate of your house’s value. If the appraiser thinks the assessment is too high, get an appraisal prepared and file the grievance on your own. If you’ve got a good case, you’ll save thousands in fees and thousands in taxes every year.