Orange County Property Tax Grievance

Orange County Property Tax Grievance Process & Deadlines

Grievance Deadline: Fourth Tuesday in May (May 28, 2024) for all Orange County municipalities, including: Newburgh, Crawford, Washingtonville, Chester, Cornwall-on-Hudson, and most other Orange County towns. Always confirm with your local municipality as some towns or villages may not follow this deadline.

If your commercial real estate assessed value seems too high, it likely is. If you feel that your Orange County taxing municipality has over-assessed the value of your commercial property, we are here to help. Here is everything you need to know to appeal your commercial property taxes in Orange County!

Property tax assessors are often working with calculations to determine a property’s value that are outdated, inaccurate, and do not take current market fluctuations into account. You could be unnecessarily overpaying on your commercial real estate taxes. Property taxes in NY are among the highest in the nation and can account for 35% of your commercial building’s operating income. That can add up to a lot of money. The best way to reduce this annual cost is to appeal to lower your assessment, which then lowers your taxes by attaining a reduction and possibly a multi-year refund. This process is known as a grievance filing.

Realty Tax Challenge (RTC) can help you grieve your Orange County, NY property tax assessment. Our expert staff has been helping NY State commercial property owners to reduce their property taxes for over 25 years. We are the best in the business at understanding real property valuation and have detailed knowledge of the local markets in Orange County, and expertise in understanding all of the factors that can affect your valuation.

If you choose to work with RTC to appeal your property taxes, here is an overview of the process:

The Orange County Property Tax Grievance Process

• Check your assessment every year before the appeal deadline to see what your local tax assessor estimated the market value of your property at. You can view that here: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/property/assess/local/ Keep in mind that these values are often over-assessed and based on incorrect or outdated information.
• The taxes you pay are based on a calculation of the assessment and the mill rate. The best way to reduce your property tax bill is to work with experts like RTC to grieve your tax assessment.
• Your property valuation is determined by so many factors. Not all properties with the same square footage are equal. Many tax reduction consultancies will just file a basic grievance and not take the time to delve into all the details that affect your specific property. The type of asset you are grieving has a big impact on the appeal strategy – industrial, office, and retail all have their own market fluctuations.
• Valuing real estate is a delicate and continuous process. We are in the real estate business and value property every day. We are on the ground in your market keeping updated on all the latest developments that could affect your valuation: Has a neighbor discovered environmental issues? Did someone lease space very cheaply on your street? Did the municipality change the access to your property through condemnation? Let us give you a free consultation to determine whether you should appeal and how best to handle your case. It costs you nothing and you can gain valuable information.
• Fill out our Retainer Agreement to Retain Our Services and get started.
• After our evaluation, if it appears that you are over-assessed, our office will begin the process of reducing your taxes. Filing a grievance and challenging your property tax assessment is a process called tax certiorari.
• Here is an overview of how tax certiorari works in Orange County. There are two levels of formal review:
  • Administrative review – the “grievance” process is conducted at the municipal level with the Town Assessor and Board of Assessment Review (BAR).
  • Judicial review – the “petition” is a legal proceeding filed with the Orange County Supreme Court. To pursue judicial review, you must first go through the administrative review process.
• If the grievance is denied, the next step is to file an Article 7 petition, which has to be filed within 30 days after the final roll is published.
• We handle the full process for you and keep you updated regularly throughout the process. We will also determine if you have any open prior tax years and we can negotiate those along with the current year, for an additional refund. Once we have successfully obtained a reduction, we will review your property tax bills to confirm they have been updated correctly.

A few important things to keep in mind:

• The grievance filing deadline only happens once a year and if you do not file, you lose your chance to appeal your taxes for that year. This is a missed opportunity, and you could end up overpaying thousands of dollars in taxes.
• Having your Orange County property taxes professionally grieved by working with RTC will give you the best chance of a positive outcome. There is no upfront fee to work with us, so there is nothing to lose. Once we have obtained a successful reduction, our fee is taken out of your return.
• A reduced assessment will remain unchanged for an additional 3 years, considered a “moratorium”. For those 3 years the municipality agrees not to increase the assessment, which locks in your lowered assessment. This means your taxes continue to be reduced, which can save you a lot of money over the course of several years. We will monitor your tax bill during that time to ensure that your assessment has not been raised.
• Your taxes will never be increased and can only go down as a result of your filing a grievance. It is against New York State law for taxes to be raised due to a grievance filing.
• The value of your property WILL NOT go down, lowering your tax assessment will actually help increase your property value.
• Real estate values are constantly in flux, so you need to file a grievance annually.

Call us at 914-348-9473, email us at info@propertytaxrefund.com, or fill out the Retainer Agreement to begin the process. We can answer any questions you have, and get you started on the tax grievance process right away!