Not Fair & Need Sleep
I own a townhouse which has a 3 family C of O. from the buildings dept. The Dept. of Finance mistakenly has it listed as a 4 family for tax purposes making it a class 2 property. OK, so now I pay about $7400 a year in taxes. My neighbor next door whose building is…
I own a townhouse which has a 3 family C of O. from the buildings dept. The Dept. of Finance mistakenly has it listed as a 4 family for tax purposes making it a class 2 property. OK, so now I pay about $7400 a year in taxes. My neighbor next door whose building is an identical 3 family with similar market value according to the city, pays $4700. In addition, he has a transitional assessed value of approx 28,000 compared to my taxable value of around 55,000. Why? In addition , the interiors of his building is nicer and would probably sell for more.
With a guaranteed increase every year of 8 percent, I will get choked out of my building in a few years with an out of control tax bill and unfairly so since I am legally a 3 family.
Has anyone changed their status and not gotten punished by the city for opening up this can of worms. Will the city ever reduce their taxable value of a property when changing the class? Does anyone know a great property tax attorney?
Stuff like this keeps me up at night and I need to sleep!
I really don’t think that is true. Didn’t DOF just go through a new round of appraisals? What figure are they currently using? What difference does it make if the building is a 4 family vs a 3 family regarding the sales price?
You really need to visit the DOF website and apply their formulas to figure it out. If your current appraised value seems reasonable then it probably won’t change much. My taxes went down a few hundred (the appraisal remained the same – just recently increased) plus I was able to receive the $400 rebate check the city sent out the last 3 years.
thanks for all your comments. I just talked to two attorneys on this matter. Both said that if i went to Finance to change from a 4 family to 3 family, Finance would take the recent sales price that I paid for the building into account I paid 3 yrs. ago, and in the end my taxes would be much higher. They separately stated that it would be suicidal to approach DOF.
Has anyone gone to Finance and had this situation where even though the tax class was changed to a lower rate, the taxes did go up because of the imposition of a new valuation?
Thanks again.
Same story as WoG, but in my case (just bought house) the re attorney sent a letter to DOF and they accepted it immediately,no appraiser sent. and he did not even charge me!
An attorney at this point is not necessary. As long as you are not using it illegally as a 4 family you should have no problems having this corrected. This issue has been addressed before in this forum and my response then was:
I had the same problem a few years ago. The DOF DOES NOT go by the DOB so the C of O will not do you any good. Your property was more than likely used as an illegal four family at some point and appraised that way (kitchens are not the only thing that they count to make this determination). The DOF will need to send an appraiser to examine the property in order to change it. I filled out every form online and spoke to numerous people on the phone to no avail. I then went over in person to the DOF – believe it or not, they were extremely helpful. The appraiser actually beat me back to my house and the correction was made for the next tax year.
I forget the specifics but my tax bill did actually go down. If I recall correctly, although a 3 family is taxed at a higher rate than a 4 (class 1 vs. class 2), the assessment ratio is 6% vs. 45% so it more than evens out. Also, you have missed out on receiving your property rebate checks the last few years because 4 family dwellings do not qualify.
Good luck!
I went through the same thing- practically banging my head against the wall wondering how my taxes were so, so high. Definitely check out the links indicated above and, if possible, bring some documentation to one of those public sessions they hold. Also, make sure to fill out the online income and expense report for the past 2 years.
I ended up contested my small commercial condo. Turns out DoF was assessing like the place took up the whole lot, more than twice the actual size of the property. I ended up getting almost a 50% reduction.
On your Department of Finance tax notice there is something that says “if your disagree with this assessment please contact . . .” (or some such).
Have you tried that route??
For any number of reasons, including the bases by which they’re calculated, your neighbor’s taxes are irrelevant to your question. The City relies, in part, on the information you provide annually. Suggest that you start by asking your questions in person through a visit to the Brooklyn Business Center, 210 Joralemon Street, 1st floor: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/contact/contact_visit_brooklyn.shtml
The City offers a number of tax reduction programs, as well as the opportunity to contest your assessment. For more information, see: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property_tax_reduc_taxreductions.shtml
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property_val_valuation.shtml#forms
Friends of mine who know those kinds of things recommend:
Sherman & Gordon or Cullen & Dykeman. I haven’t used either.