Grievance Achieved a Successful Reduction in Assessment by $230,000  

I never thought the mess I outlined in my Grieving by Excessive Assessment Case Study #3 could be outdone but I was wrong. The information and issues discussed here are from my experiences and research done while grieving an assessment for a client in upstate New York. The property's assessed value went up  $335,700 from $844,300 to $1,180,000.

I represented the property owner as a part of my private consultancy business (not through Tax My Property Fairly), for his entire grievance from an informal meeting with the assessor, a Board of Assessment Review Hearing, and a Small Claims Assessment Review Hearing or SCAR Hearing.

I went through my normal process of thoroughly researching comparable sales and/or comparable properties and presented this information to the assessor in an informal meeting.

Getting no resolution at the informal meeting, I did more research on comparable properties and scheduled an appointment for grievance before the Board of Assessment Review (BAR).

At the BAR meeting, I submitted a 2-page overview for each Board member. The BAR never looked at or asked about the comparable property spreadsheet or supporting documents. They instead dwelled on one comparable property assessment I had inquired about at the informal meeting as to why it the assessment was lowered by $426,000.00 with no proof of current and accurate data. The BAR did not ask the assessor to provide any proof of how the assessment I was grieving was achieved nor did the assessor offer any proof. NYS law requires the assessor to provide proof that the assessment is correct for any assessment that is challenged. After 10 minutes, suddenly a Board member said my time was up and ended the hearing. I was never given a chance to explain my grievance or my other comparable properties.

Read Full Case Study

‍