HK partners David Wilkes and Kevin Clyne wrote an article recently for the New York Real Estate Journal discussing the different approaches various regions of New York State take in assessing real estate for taxes and challenging those assessments. The article, which was published on September 21, 2021, discusses the hurdles and challenges of navigating the State’s different procedures,

There are more differences than similarities in process and rules as one moves around the state: For instance, commercial property (such as hotels, offices, retail) in New York City is valued as of January 5 each year at an equalization ratio of 45% on a class-based system (differentiating among different types of properties). Valuation dates throughout the rest of the state fall at a variety of other times during the year – sometimes preceding the assessment year entirely – depending on where the property is located (different valuation dates may even apply to the same property if it is located in a village that assesses separately from a town!); and in each of these jurisdictions the equalization ratio will likely differ and change from one year to the next, even within the same county, and nearly all jurisdictions in New York state outside the city and Nassau make no property class distinctions.

The complete article can be read on the NYREJ.com website. David Wilkes, CRE, FRICS, and Kevin Clyne, CRE, are partners in the tax certiorari law firm of Herman Katz Cangemi Wilkes & Clyne, LLP, with offices in Westchester, Manhattan, and Long Island.