How it works

The steps

1. Free telephone consultation. Tell me about the property and what you paid.
2. A free, quantitative analysis of your property. I compare your assessment with your home's value and with the level at which the rest of the roll is assessed. Not an opinion — a calculation, and I show you how it was done.
3. The result, either way. If you are over-assessed, I show you the potential savings and put a proposal in writing. If you are not, I demonstrate exactly why, and it costs you nothing.
4. A written agreement between you and me, Michael R. Franklin, before anything is filed.
5. The grievance. I prepare and file the complaint, form RP-524, with your Board of Assessment Review.
6. Small Claims Assessment Review (SCAR), if the Board says no: an independent hearing officer reviews the assessment.

Fees

There is no cost unless I secure a reduction. My fee is a percentage of the reduction from last year's assessment to this year's, set out in the written agreement before we begin. Half is due when the reduction is confirmed in writing by the taxing authority; the balance is due in 90 days, unless we arrange otherwise.

When to file

Grievance day is set by statute. Under Real Property Tax Law § 512(1), the Board of Assessment Review meets

“Beginning on the fourth Tuesday of May, or such other date as is established by city charter, county charter, county tax act or other special law”

So most towns hear grievances in late May, but cities with their own charters often do not. The City of Syracuse, for example, accepts grievances only during the last two weeks of January. Miss the date and you wait a year. Call me and I will tell you your date.

The grounds

New York law recognises several kinds of assessment error. The two that matter most for homeowners are defined in Real Property Tax Law § 522:

Excessive assessment — § 522(4)(a)

“an entry on an assessment roll of the assessed valuation of real property which exceeds the full value of real property”

In plain terms: assessed at more than the house is worth.

Unequal assessment — § 522(9)(c)

“an entry on an assessment roll of the assessed valuation of real property improved by a one, two or three family residence which is made at either a higher proportion of full value than the assessed valuation of other residential property on the same roll by the same officers or at a higher proportion of full value than the assessed valuation of all real property on the same roll by the same officers”

In plain terms: your home is assessed at a bigger share of its value than your neighbours' homes are. This is the usual problem when a roll has gone years without a revaluation.

Read the transcript

This is Mike Franklin, the Property Tax Guy. Today we’re going to talk about the unequal option on the SCAR petition, the 730-A. Most people only think about one argument. My house isn’t worth what they say it’s worth. That’s excessive. But there’s a second argument, and a lot of the time, it’s the better one.

Unequal is Part Two, Section C of the petition. And what it says is, your property is assessed at a higher percentage of its market value than everybody else. You check one of two boxes. All other property on the roll, or residential property on the roll. So in plain English, if there are other properties as good or better than yours, and they’re assessed for less, that’s an unequal argument.

Now, you have to put numbers on it. First, the full market value of your property. Then the percentage it should be assessed at. And the form tells you where that comes from. The State equalization rate, the residential assessment ratio, a sample of comparable sales and assessments, or what the assessor has said about the roll.

And then it’s just math. Say your home is worth two hundred thousand dollars, and it’s assessed at a hundred and fifty thousand. That’s seventy-five percent. If everybody else is assessed at fifty percent, your assessment should be a hundred thousand. Apples to apples.

A few rules. You have to grieve to the Board of Assessment Review first. You can’t ask the hearing officer for a lower number than you asked the Board for. The burden of proof is on you. And you file within thirty days after the final roll is filed, with a thirty dollar fee.

So that’s the unequal option. It’s not an opinion, it’s a calculation. If you think you’re paying more than your fair share, give me a call. This is Mike Franklin, the Property Tax Guy, three one five, eight seven six, two two six two.

Small Claims Assessment Review

SCAR is an inexpensive hearing before an independent hearing officer. Under Real Property Tax Law § 730(1), to use it:

• You must first file a grievance with the local review board — the Board of Assessment Review, or the body a local law or charter provides (§ 730(1)(a)).
• The property must be a one-, two- or three-family owner-occupied home used only as a residence (§ 730(1)(b)(i)).
• The SCAR petition cannot ask for a lower assessment than the grievance asked for (§ 730(1)(d)) — so the grievance has to be right the first time.
• If the home's equalized value is over $450,000, the reduction requested cannot exceed 25% of the assessment (§ 730(1)(c)).

The hearing officer must weigh the best evidence available, which under § 732(2) includes “the assessment of comparable residential properties within the same assessing unit.” That is why I request the assessor's own comparable-assessment report before a hearing — see your records.

Does my property qualify? Four things people get wrong

Most of the people who should be filing never do, because they have been told something that is not so. These are the four I hear most.

“It’s a camp, so it doesn’t count.”

It counts. There is no year-round requirement and no primary-residence requirement in § 730(1)(b)(i) — unlike the STAR exemption, which says so expressly. The State has taken that view since 1982: a seasonal residence qualifies “provided that during the period it is in use it is occupied by its owner” (7 Op. Counsel SBEA No. 80). The Court of Appeals said the same thing in 2015 — “seasonal use does not disqualify property from SCAR consideration, so long as the owner occupies the property in season” (Matter of Manouel v Board of Assessors, 25 NY3d 46, 53). No heat, no insulation and a tax bill that arrives in New Jersey change none of that. What matters is that you use it and nobody else does.

“My house is worth too much.”

There is no value ceiling. The $450,000 figure in § 730(1)(c) is a limit on what you may ask for, not on who may file. Above that figure the reduction requested cannot exceed 25% of the assessment — so on a $3 million assessment you can still ask for $750,000 off. For most expensive homes the cap is nowhere near binding, because the honest ask is smaller than 25% anyway.

“It’s in a trust, or an LLC.”

Ask before you assume. A trust holding a primary residence for estate-planning or asset-protection purposes is covered expressly by § 730(1), and so is a qualifying limited partnership. Other arrangements are arguable rather than automatically barred, and the question is usually who holds the beneficial interest and who actually occupies the house — not what the deed says on its face. A corporation is a different matter and generally will not work.

“If I get it wrong I lose everything.”

You don’t. If the hearing officer decides the property did not qualify, the petition is denied without prejudice and you get a fresh 30 days to bring an Article 7 proceeding instead, counted from service of the decision (§ 733(3)). The Appellate Division applied that in 2023. A wrong guess costs a filing fee, not the remedy.

What genuinely does disqualify a property: nobody in the ownership ever stays there; it is rented for the whole season with no owner use; the title is in a corporation; there are four or more dwelling units; it is a co-op, or a condominium outside the Class One and homestead exceptions; or it is vacant land large enough to build on. If you are not sure which side of any of these you fall on, that is exactly what the first call is for.

Forms and reference

The official forms, straight from the State and the courts. Each link goes to the agency's own current version, so you never file an outdated form.

What helps to have ready

• Your closing statement or deed showing the purchase price
• Your most recent tax bill
• Any appraisal done for a purchase or refinance
• Photos of anything that lowers value: condition, repairs needed, damage

Don't have them? Call anyway — I can start from public records.