On January 3, 2019, County officials announced the release of tentative assessed values for the 2020-2021 tax year; these have been posted to the official Nassau County site at mynassauproperty.com.
This announcement follows a 60-day review period in which Department of Assessment personnel met with property owners to go over the new figures, address concerns about the new valuations, and in some cases, make adjustments. According to the County, “more than 85,000 values for the 2020-21 tentative assessment roll were decreased from the preliminary new market values listed in the Assessment Disclosure Notices.”
By January 31st, property owners should begin receiving hard copy versions of the new data in the form of a Notice of Tentative Assessed Value for the 2020-21 assessment roll.
Filing a Tax Grievance Is Still Your Best Mechanism to Fight Back
Yes, the tentative assessed values have been released, but it’s clear that homeowners need to do more than simply accept the new valuations at face value. Put simply, the new tentative market values – which appear to be higher across the board – should be considered starting points, not end points.
Why? Because as we already saw in the 60-day review period, the assumptions, models, and calculations used by the County’s assessment software always need to be tested against reality. Software isn’t all-knowing, of course, and the homeowner will typically be in the best position to know the actual value of any improvements made to land or property.
Furthermore, County executives have assumed that any negative tax impacts wrought by the reassessment would be limited by capping the increases through legislation termed by the County Executive as a “Taxpayer Protection Plan.” While such a plan may be proposed, it’s not yet law, so Nassau County property owners are currently exposed to severe tax shocks that are sufficient in some cases to drive them from their homes.
All of these uncertainties reinforce the need to have an experienced, knowledgeable firm at your side to ensure that you’re not overpaying taxes on your Nassau County residential property.
The Clock is Ticking…
Ordinarily, the deadline for grieving your tentative assessment is March 1st, but the County has extended the deadline this year to April 30th. While that’s not a lot of calendar time, it’s sufficient for Maidenbaum’s tax experts to get to work on your case. So do the sensible thing and authorize us to grieve your property tax assessment on your behalf — you’ll sleep easier knowing that Nassau County’s most successful tax grievance firm is working diligently on your behalf to reduce your property taxes to the absolute minimum permitted by law.