BULLETIN TEMPLATE (Jan 31, 2017)

Today, we welcomed as our speaker Adam Heller, Rocky Point Rotary President-Elect, and an owner of Heller & Clausen Tax Grievance Group in Rocky Point. Adam, who began his career in real estate, now works with residential and commercial property owners in Nassau and Suffolk Counties to attempt to save them money through preparing and filing tax grievances for them. A property tax grievance is a formal complaint filed against a town's assessed value on a particular parcel of property based upon comparable sales. The town places a value on every property within its borders. If Adam's company can prove that a property is worth less than that value, it will accept to file a grievance for the owner, try to prove over-payment of taxes, and seek a tax reduction and refund. If there are sales in the area of the property in question that are equal and above that value, the company will inform the prospective client that he/she has no case. If the property is a home, and a neighbor has a similar home that has lower property taxes, it may mean that they are under-assessed, so that is not necessarily a factor for his company to accept a case. Adam's company pre-qualifies the home before bringing a grievance to the town's attention. If the taxes are lower than they should be, the company will not file the petition. There are 2 levels to a property tax grievance. The 1st: the company submits the paperwork to the town's Board of Assessment Review (BAR) - in Nassau it's called Assessment Review Committee (ARC). Most cases are denied here. Next, the company files a legal appeal of the case in a division of the NY State Supreme Court called Small Claims Assessment Review (SCAR). The complainant receives a court date in 12-18 months. The company presents the case for tax reduction. Adam claims that around 1/2 of grievances filed are successful. If the case is won in favor of the company's client, any tax over-payment is retroactive to the year of filing and will be refunded by the county treasurer's office, usually within 12-18 months. On the other hand, if the claim fails, it can be refiled the following year at the town level or every other year at the SCAR level, since property market values change frequently. Adam pointed out that assessments in Suffolk County cannot go up if you have filed a tax grievance. No one will come from the assessors office to inspect a property whose value is in question. Information is used that the town already has on file for the property, so no red flags are raised. The easiest cases to win are those on homes that have been purchased within the last year or homes that are currently for sale. To help entice potential buyers, the company can supply a letter stating an estimated reduction for homes that are for sale. For every $ saved in property taxes, the property's sale value increases approximately ten times- lower taxes bring faster home sales.