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
Kim Tavares's Profile | Create Your Badge
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Long Island Realtor - e-PRO certified www.FineLIhomes.com
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Kim, this is great information and reminder for homeowners, whether they are thinking to sell or not!
Kim, this is great information.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
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
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!
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
Sunny, The only way to know for sure would be to put the grievance in. There's still time - deadline 5/19.
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.
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.
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.
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!