"New Jersey property tax lawyers" Tag Archives

It is no secret that New Jersey citizens pay the highest property taxes in the nation. Property taxes are assessed by local governments and used to pay for local programs and services. Therefore, things that may affect a homeowner’s property taxes include: the local (municipal and county) programs and services, including public schools, local revenues available through other sources, the market value of the homeowner’s property, and the total value of all properties in the municipality. All taxable property is assessed a value by the town tax assessor. “The assessor shall…after examination and inquiry, determine the full and fair value of each parcel situated in the taxing district at such price as, in his judgment, it would sell for at a fair and bona fide sale by private contract on October 1 next preceding the date on which the assessor shall complete his assessments…” N.J.S.A §54:4-23.

Therefore market value should correlate closely with the assessed value. However, it is too labor intensive to have tax assessors reassess every individual property each year. Indeed, New Jersey has 565 municipalities. Nearly every one has its own local tax assessor.

Therefore, generally the tax for each property is simply adjusted slightly each year to meet budget requirements. In that case, the municipality may only do town-wide reassessments once every several years depending on changes to and needs of the municipality, policies, and property sales. This is done to insure “equalization” – insuring that each property is carrying its fair share of the tax burden. For instance, if assessors see that properties are being sold for values that significantly differ from assessed values, then that might be an indicator that a reassessment needs to be done to ensure equalization. This is sometimes referred to as an assessment-sales ratio comparison.

Many people, particularly in New Jersey, believe that their property taxes may be incorrect. In order to determine this, the homeowner first needs to have a basis for what the accurate market price would be. If the home was recently sold – that may be a good indicator. Also, the recent sales prices of other similar properties in the municipality may also be good indicators. (In any case, if a homeowner is looking to challenge her tax assessment, an expert appraisal will most likely be required.)
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If you own property in Monmouth County the property tax appeal deadline has changed. While the new date in the rest of the state remains April 1st, Monmouth County has volunteered to test out a new law changing the appeal date to January 15, 2014 or within 45 days of the bulk mailing of the municipal assessments, whichever is later. If your property is in Monmouth County and you did not file your petition to appeal your property tax assessment on or before January 15th, you will not be able to file and appeal this year unless the notice was mailed within the last 45 days or there was a town-wide revaluation.

New legislation was enacted and the governor signed into law, P.L. 2013, c. 15, creating a demonstration program which allows up to four counties to opt into the new law, two in the first two years and two more in the following two years. At the present time, only one county has opted in, Monmouth County.

This is a significant change because the deadline to file a petition to appeal a property tax assessment in the rest of the state of New Jersey remains April 1, or within 45 days of the bulk mailing of the property tax cards, whichever is later. While property tax cards are traditionally been mailed out in February, most Monmouth County municipalities have already mailed out their property tax cards. The appeals hearings in participating counties are expected to be conducted by the end of April.

The stated purpose of the new law is to establish a collaborative system of property assessment between the county board of taxation and the municipal assessors which it is hoped will result reductions in cost and increases in accuracy and consistency of assessments. The stated purpose of the change in the appeal deadline is to assist in municipal budgeting and to more evenly distribute tax losses to municipalities which result from tax appeals across the various governmental entities on whose behalf taxes are collected (i.e. school, county). However, the change appears suspiciously timed to limit property owners’ right to challenge their assessments and make more money for the towns.
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Articles Tagged with “New Jersey property tax lawyers”

Property Taxes & Appeals

The Filing Deadline for some New Jersey Property Tax Appeal is changing