Why your assessment may be wrong

The rule: Real Property Tax Law § 305

Section 305 is the standard every assessment in New York is measured against. It has three parts.

§ 305(1): the town keeps its method

“The existing assessing methods in effect in each assessing unit on the effective date of this section may continue.”

A city, town or village does not have to change how it values property, and nothing in § 305 makes it revalue on a schedule. Some go decades without one.

§ 305(2): one percentage for everyone

“All real property in each assessing unit shall be assessed at a uniform percentage of value (fractional assessment)”

This is the heart of it. The town may assess at a fraction of what property is worth — 50%, 20%, even 5% — but it must be the same fraction for every property on the roll. The fraction itself does not raise or lower anyone's taxes, because the tax rate is set to match it. What matters is whether your fraction is the same as everyone else's.

The subsection's only exception is for a city of one million or more whose administrative code allowed a classified standard before 1981 — New York City, which I do not cover.

§ 305(3): after a revaluation

“Any assessing unit in which assessments are at full value by reason of a revaluation may adopt a level of assessment in accordance with this section.”

A town that revalues to 100% may later move to a lower level, but the uniformity rule in § 305(2) still applies.

How you know what “uniform” is

You rarely need to guess the town's percentage. New York State measures it every year and publishes a residential assessment ratio for each city and town — the share of full value at which homes there are assessed. For the City of Syracuse it is 47.97% (rate year 2025). If your home is assessed at a much larger share of its value than that, § 305(2) is not being met for you. You can check yours with the calculator.

The “Welcome Stranger” problem

You buy a house. Within a year or two the assessment jumps toward what you paid. Your neighbours, who bought years ago, keep their old assessments. You are now paying a larger share of the school and town budget than they are for the same kind of house.

Why it happens

Many assessing units go years — sometimes decades — without a full revaluation. Over that time the market moves and the roll does not, so the assessments on unsold homes fall further and further below what those homes are worth.

A sale is the one moment an assessor sees a fresh, reliable price. Raising the sold home's assessment toward that price is tempting. But if only the homes that sell are brought up to date, the roll is no longer uniform.

Why the law forbids it

Bringing only the homes that sell up to market value breaks the one-percentage rule in § 305(2): the buyer ends up assessed at a higher percentage of value than the neighbours.

What the courts have said

Krugman v Board of Assessors of Village of Atlantic Beach, 141 AD2d 175 (2d Dept 1988). The owner of a one-family home, reassessed after buying it, challenged the village's practice of reassessing only properties that had changed hands. The Appellate Division held that reassessing only recently transferred properties violates the statutory and constitutional requirements of uniform assessment.

Allegheny Pittsburgh Coal Co. v County Commission of Webster County, 488 US 336 (1989). The United States Supreme Court held that assessing recently purchased property at its purchase price, while comparable property kept its old assessments, violated the Equal Protection Clause.

What it means for you

If your assessment was raised after you bought and the homes around you were not, the usual claim is an unequal assessment. The State publishes a residential assessment ratio for every city and town — the share of full value at which homes there are assessed. If your assessment is a much bigger share of your home's value than that ratio, that is the evidence.

The goal is not a lower bill than your neighbours pay. It is the same share.

Excessive assessment

Real Property Tax Law § 522(4) defines an excessive assessment. For a homeowner, two parts matter:

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

“(b) an entry on an assessment roll of the taxable assessed valuation of real property which is excessive because the real property failed to receive all or a portion of a partial exemption to which the real property or owner thereof is entitled pursuant to the law authorizing the partial exemption”

Part (a) means the assessment is higher than the house is worth — more than 100% of its value. That is uncommon where a town assesses at a fraction of value, but it is the usual claim where a town assesses at or near full value. Part (b) covers a partial exemption you qualify for but did not receive in full, such as a senior citizens' or veterans' exemption.

The proof is the value of the house: your purchase price if the sale was recent and at arm's length, an appraisal, or sales of comparable homes.

Unequal assessment

This is the claim for most homes on an old roll, including almost every Welcome Stranger case. Real Property Tax Law § 522(9) defines it:

“(a) an entry on the assessment roll of an assessing unit other than a special assessing unit of the assessed valuation of real property which is made at a higher proportionate valuation than the assessed valuation of other real property on the same roll by the same officers”

“(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 house is assessed at a bigger share of its value than other property on the same roll. It is § 305(2) broken for one owner. You do not have to show the assessment is higher than the house is worth — only that your percentage is higher than everyone else's.

How it is proved

• Your percentage: your assessment divided by what the house is worth.
• Everyone else's percentage: the State's residential assessment ratio for your city or town, and the assessor's own Comparable Assessments Report, which shows how similar homes on the same roll are assessed. In Small Claims Assessment Review the hearing officer is directed to consider “the assessment of comparable residential properties within the same assessing unit” (RPTL § 732(2)).
• The remedy: the assessment is brought down to the same percentage as everyone else's — your home's value times the town's ratio.

How to get the Comparable Assessments Report under FOIL.

Inventory errors

Behind every assessment is the assessor's inventory of the property, kept on the property record card: lot size, living area, bathrooms, basement and finish, garage, porches, year built, and two judgement calls — the grade of construction and the condition of the house. The assessor's software turns that description into a value. If the description is wrong, the value is wrong.

Common errors

• Living area measured or keyed in wrong
• A bathroom, fireplace, finished basement or garage that is not there
• A shed, pool or porch removed years ago
• Grade or condition rated higher than the State's definitions support
• Wrong acreage

The State tells assessors what each grade and condition means in its data collection manual: overall condition, §8.21 and construction grade, §8.24.

Read the full manual (PDF, 145 pages) — Assessor Manual: Data Collection and Maintenance of Property Inventories – Residential, Farm and Vacant Land, NYS Office of Real Property Tax Services, Publication 1050A, July 2025.

What the law says

Title 3 of Article 5 of the Real Property Tax Law, “Correction of Assessment Rolls and Tax Rolls,” treats some inventory mistakes as an “error in essential fact” (§ 550(3)), including:

“(b) an incorrect entry on the taxable portion of the assessment roll, or the tax roll, or both, of the assessed valuation of an improvement to real property which was not in existence or which was present on a different parcel”

The same subsection covers an improvement destroyed or removed before taxable status date, and acreage a survey shows to be wrong. Most other inventory errors — square footage, grade, condition — are raised in the ordinary grievance, as evidence that the assessment is excessive or unequal.

Errors go both ways

The same subsection also lists “the omission of the value of an improvement present on real property prior to taxable status date” (§ 550(3)(d)). An inventory can understate a house as easily as overstate it. If I find an error that would raise your assessment, I tell you before anything goes to the assessor, and you decide how to proceed. My objective is an assessment that is right.

Your property record card is a public record. Here is how to get it.