Nassau County Property Tax Grievance Filing Deadline Extended to May 2, 2022

On Monday, February 7, 2022, the Nassau County Legislature voted unanimously to amend the Nassau County administrative code to extend the deadline to file an application for the correction of an assessment for the 2023/24 tentative assessment roll filed on January 3, 2022.

“This is an item,” noted Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello, “that will give residents and homeowners an extension of time to file their assessment challenges until April 30th. The need is based on the fact that the notices of tentative assessment did not go out until late, so by failing to send those out closer to the beginning of the year, they will have in effect shortened the challenge period for almost all county residents.”

Nicolello noted that while the updated notices of tentative assessment had been published in a timely manner on the County’s website, “99.9 percent of County residents see these (mailed) notices and that’s what triggers them to evaluate potentially challenging their assessments.”

The Assessment Review Commission confirmed the extension on February 9, 2022, but since the proposed date of April 30, 2022 falls on a Saturday, the official extended deadline is now Monday, May 2, 2022.

Why You Need to File a Grievance

Filing a property tax grievance is something that every homeowner should do.  There is literally no downside in taking the step necessary to confirm that your property tax assessment is accurate.

It’s no secret that the costs of home ownership in Nassau County are among the highest in the nation (according to Attom Data, a firm that tracks property data across the U.S., the costs of home ownership in Nassau County, including property taxes, now consume 56.5 percent of an average household’s wage income). And it’s also no secret that Nassau County’s data on properties isn’t perfect. While the County attempts to make sure that its assessment of what your property is worth is accurate, it doesn’t have the workforce necessary to inspect your home to determine whether, for example, the overall quality of your home is graded properly, whether the traffic level on your street is light or heavy, or validate all the other multiple variables that have a material impact on the estimated value of your property.

Errors in the assessment process can crop up for all kinds of reasons. It’s your job (or your representative’s, if you choose Maidenbaum to represent you), to ferret out each and every source of error that might result in an inflated assessment.

That means filing a grievance, each and every year.

There’s No Risk in Filing a Grievance

Filing a grievance is a zero-risk endeavor. In some U.S. states, homeowners do take a risk when they challenge their assessments, because if it’s found during the challenge that their properties have been underassessed, they’ll face a higher property tax bill.

But that’s not the case in New York State or in Nassau County. There’s zero chance that because of your grievance the County will increase your property’s assessment. Filing a tax grievance–and doing so on a yearly basis, is a zero-risk option with only two possible results: a reduced assessment or an assessment that stays the same.

Let the Pros Do the Heavy Lifting for You

While Nassau County allows you to use its AROW (Assessment Review on the Web) system to inspect the data held on your property and to file a tax challenge on your own (this is called filing a “pro se” grievance), there are many risks in doing so. It’s possible that you’ll file a pro se tax challenge that’s defective, incomplete, or ignores important details that have an impact on your fair share of the tax burden.

Here, the pros can really help because, unlike you – grieving is all they do. That’s why Nassau County’s smartest homeowners choose Maidenbaum to file grievances for them. Should your case go as far as a Small Claims Assessment Review proceeding, Maidenbaum will represent you and use its years of experience to help achieve the best possible outcome for you. Statistics have shown that Maidenbaum’s success rate is more than double that of pro se filers.

We hope you file a property tax grievance for the 2023/24 tax year and that you’ll choose Maidenbaum to represent you. If you’d like to sign up or simply learn more about how the process works, please contact us today via our website or by phone at 516-336-8622.