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Tax Grievance Day...More Important than Ever!

By
Real Estate Sales Representative with Legend Residential Sales LLC

Here's your chance to lower property taxes.  Homeowners and homebuyers often complain about property taxes, myself included.  With home prices dropping, many homes are overassessed. 

As a homeowner, grieving your taxes allows you to save money annually and in the long run.   It is a great benefit, when selling your home, to be able to list lower taxes.  High property taxes are often a huge turn-off to buyers.  When dealing with first time buyers, who are concerned with mortgage payments and utility bills, the lower taxes make the home very attractive.

Overassessed Home = High Taxes

The deadline to file your grievance (Grievance Day) is the 3rd Tuesday in May.  This year would fall on May 19th, 2009. 

Tax grievances may be filed by the homowners themselves or a representative of the homeowner.  There are many professional tax grievance companies available to handle this for you.  Their fee is often minimal and only required if they succeeded in getting your taxes lowered. 

For additional info: 

 

Town of Smithtown:  http://www.smithtowninfo.com/Assessor'sOffice/templateproc.cfm?PageID=123

Town of Huntington: http://town.huntington.ny.us/department_details.cfm?ID=26

Town of Babylon: http://www.townofbabylon.com/faq/assess.cfm

 

 

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Lourdes Hoglo REALTOR® Three Village & North Shore Suffolk Co. Long Island
Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Setauket, NY

Kim, this is great information and reminder for homeowners, whether they are thinking to sell or not!

Mar 24, 2009 11:09 AM
Anonymous
Robert B.

Kim, this is great information.

Thank you for sharing it with us.

Mar 27, 2009 08:32 AM
#2
Anonymous
Sunny Ailawadi

Kim,

What are the chances that town will actually lower the taxes. I just had a survey done and as per the survey the value comes $75,000 less than what town assessed the home at. Do you think I will get a rebate!!

Sunny

 

Apr 27, 2009 10:27 PM
#3
Kim Tavares
Legend Residential Sales LLC - Dix Hills, NY
e-PRO - Long Island, NY

Hi Sunny,

You sound like the perfect candidate to grieve taxes.  As I've mentioned, there's many professionals that you could hire to do it for you.  Usually, there's only a fee if they get your taxes reduced (and that would only be a percent of what they actually save you).  If they can't get your taxes reduced - there's no fee.  There's nothing to lose!  Good Luck!

 

Apr 28, 2009 02:37 AM
Anonymous
Kim

Hi,

Thanks for the response. Smithtown actually reduced our official value from $508,000 to $435,000 just 2 weeks after filing the latest appraisal survey for 2009-2010, but they said it does not guarantee the property tax reduction. What is that about? Response will be appreciated.

Sunny

May 09, 2009 01:58 AM
#5
Kim Tavares
Legend Residential Sales LLC - Dix Hills, NY
e-PRO - Long Island, NY

Sunny,  The only way to know for sure would be to put the grievance in.  There's still time - deadline 5/19. 

May 10, 2009 08:43 AM
Anonymous
Tom M.

Kim,

You did not list anything for the town of Islip.  Is there department or a number to call?  If so, how difficult is it to grieve my taxes with out a service?

Thanks!

Tom M. 

Jun 13, 2009 12:25 AM
#7
Anonymous
Tom M.

Kim:

My Mortgage & Bills are currently paid up to but barely.  Any day we can be let go from work. Are there any programs available for homeowners who are in good standing?  It seems that I need to go into default before I would be eligable for any program.  Any direction you can point me in would be appreciated.

Sincerely

Tom M.

Jun 13, 2009 12:31 AM
#8
Kim Tavares
Legend Residential Sales LLC - Dix Hills, NY
e-PRO - Long Island, NY

Hi Tom, For more info.on the grievance, you could contact Ronald F. Devine, Jr. - Assessor at (631) 224-5585.  As for getting help, if you are in good standing but are having difficulty, you might want to try speaking with your mortgage company.  They may be able to work with you on a loan modification. 

Jun 14, 2009 09:26 AM
Anonymous
Donna

Go to www.litaxcut.com.  They have a 100% success rate in smithtown for tax grievances. And if they don't win for you, you don't pay a dime.

They grieved my taxes and won.  Awesome!

Sep 02, 2009 06:43 AM
#10
Anonymous
John M.

When one files for tax grievance, does the town at any point along the way in the process, send out a (Bldg) inspector to the property to check out anything with respect to things that may or could possibly be present w/o any permits?

Or is that something that just does not happen since a tax grievance is filed with the Assessor's office, which is separate from what the Building Dept handles? 

Jan 04, 2010 03:36 PM
#11
Kim Tavares
Legend Residential Sales LLC - Dix Hills, NY
e-PRO - Long Island, NY

Hi John,

When you grieve your taxes, I'm told that the Town will not penalize you.  Therefore, your taxes can only go down not up, or stay the same.  But I specialize in selling real estate, so, to get an accurate answer regarding the building department, I would advise you to contact a tax grievance professional.  You could try Mark Lewis 631-696-2222.  Good luck.

By the way, this year Grievance Day is May 18, 2010! 

Jan 05, 2010 04:22 AM
Anonymous
John

I used LITaxSave.com.  They saved me over $5000 a year for my house in Smithtown.  They have a lookup on their website with actual savings by town.  Might pay to lookup your area to get an idea of what they can do for you.  My guys name was Bill.

Jan 16, 2010 02:18 AM
#13
Kim Tavares
Legend Residential Sales LLC - Dix Hills, NY
e-PRO - Long Island, NY

John,

Congrats on you savings!  Definitely worth giving it a try!

Jan 16, 2010 03:07 AM
Anonymous
NS

Kim:

 

I am a Smithtown resident for 5 years. I submitted a form to a local tax grievance firm and received a letter a few days ago that they cannot help me. What could the reason be?

 

NS

May 11, 2010 09:34 AM
#15
Anonymous
Cori Kaplan

There are two reasons that a tax grievance firm would not take your case.

The fist reason is you are being fairly assessed which means that your home's value is equal to you assessed value.

The second is you filed a grievance in 2009 and your case is still pending. 

 

Aug 04, 2010 10:28 AM
#16