Realty Inside Neighborhood

Tax board hearings have started and over the past month I have noticed a lot of things during the proceedings which I attended.

Many people who have filed their appeals on time have not followed all the rules as outlined in the instructions. Most importantly is getting the appraisal report or list of sales to be used as comparison not only to the tax board but ALSO the tax assessor, no less that 7 days prior to the hearing date. If the tax assessor does not get a copy of the sales which are going to be used for your case, they do not have time to prepare and will ask the board to dismiss the case on this basis.

The tax board also does NOT want to hear about how your neighboring properties have higher or lower taxes or are assessed differently. They want to know how much your property is worth and any thing that may impact on the value of your property.

I watched as many home owners proceeded with their case, as they followed the instructions and testified to the board by themselves. The unfortunate problem is that many had no expert testimony from an appraiser. They presented a list 3-5 sales as indicated in the instructions which they thought were comparable, only to find out at the hearing that they were not really as comparable as they thought or were considered as unusable (short sale, estate sale, etc.) and in some cases helped support the tax assessment.

Now some towns had offered a settlement to some home owners, and many home owners accepted these settlement offers. In these cases I wondered if the home owners realized how much or little these minor reductions the town was offering would change their property taxes.

If you are filing a NJ tax assessment appeal remember these simple things:

1. Follow the appeal process instructions completely!
2. Present evidence and testimony proving what your property is worth as of October 1 in the pre tax year.
3. Hire a NJ State certified appraiser to prepare an appraisal report and testify on your behalf. This typically increases your odds of getting a better reduction in your assessment.
4. Know the tax rate and ratio. This way if the assessor offers a settlement you can calculate how much you will save in taxes, and decide if presenting your case to the tax board commissioner(s) would be worth while.

Contact Appraisal Authority for help in your property tax assessment appeal. www.realtyinside.com