Grievance Day approaches
-
- May
- 19
An e-mail this afternoon from Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun reminded me that Grievance Day is a week from tomorrow.
No, it’s not a day where you get to just complain about anything and everything; it’s the deadline for folks to file formal grievances on their property tax bills.
Calhoun included a link to a helpful pamplhet: “Fair Assessments: A Guide for Property Owners,” as well as a link to the overall Office of Real Property Services site.
The Assemblywoman also reminds folks of an important point: You need not pay anyone to help you file a grievance. Forms are free at your assessor’s office; you just have to drop them off at the office on or by May 27.
Good luck.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 4:25 pm by Amy Vernon. 
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Category: assessment, Grievance Day, Nancy Calhoun, property assessment, property tax, tax assessor
Of course thay want to make it seem as if this is a “neighborly” process (as they say) & lull you into thinking that the process is fair & transparent. The recommended brochure fosters that illusion.
Yet they only allow one day a year to make your case, swear you in in for a four on one interview (+ reporter) in a process in which they have become ‘expert’ (and in which you are clueless), take full minutes of everything you say—that is to say you are in a quasi-judicial setting if there ever was one. They provide little information as to their criteria of assessment, do not provide access to the transcript of the session (as far as I’m aware), and then notify you by mail as to their decision. A bit to much like begging to the king for redress for my taste!!!
Apparently a “real” price established in an arms-length open market transaction is less important to them then their arbitrary “assessed value” and does not automatically “reset” that assessed value—even on a 40 year old house that has never been on the open market!!!
My advice-
having now experienced the process first hand-would be to always take representation and fight arbitrariness with the help of someone who is prepared to fight fantasy with reason, and cut through the feigned “neighborlyness” and look out for your interests!