Areas of practice

Real Estate Tax Reduction Proceedings (Tax Certiorari)

Real estate Tax reduction proceedings (Tax Certiorari). Owners of real property located in the City of New York have the right to annually contest the assessed value of their property. From January 15 through March 1, an application for correction of the assessed value may be filed with the Tax Commission of the City of New York, or in certain circumstances, an application for a change by notice may be filed with the New York City Department of Finance. Where appropriate, a hearing will be scheduled and evidence presented and advocated by the firm as to the requested value of the property.

In most cases, the Department of Finance or the Tax Commission will render a determination by using the capitalization of income approach to value and applying the appropriate capitalization and equalization rates. The law firm of Tuchman, Korngold, Weiss, Liebman and Lindemann, LLP, has many years of experience in determining these values and is intimately familiar with the methodology utilized by the Department of Finance and Tax Commission to reach their conclusions of value.

Where an offer is not forthcoming from the Tax Commission, a petition will be filed with the New York State Supreme Court. The petition will serve the purpose of keeping the case alive so that another hearing may be requested in the following year at the Tax Commission, it will also allow the case to be placed on the court calendar and a judicial disposition of the assessed value may be obtained where the matter warrants judicial intervention.