Cortlandt Residents Seek Lower Property Assessment

Hundreds of residents in Cortlandt Manor have filed assessment grievances with the Cortlandt Municipality Tax Assessor’s officer, as companies such as Bruce Sokol & Associates advertise lowering property taxes on television and through mass mailings.

Property assessments have experienced a “pronounced” increase according to Cortlandt Municipality Tax Assessor Thomas Waitkins. Many companies, such as the Sokol firm, are conducting a “saturation campaign,” said Waitkins, to convince home owners to have their property value reassessed. The company’s goal is to have a homeowner’s property taxes lowered through a negative reassessment.

This basically results in a “one to one relationship,” Waitkins said. “If they’re liable for one dollar less any given year, that’s one dollar less the town is taking in, or the school district or any other entity.”

This practice would have been unheard of ten years ago, as most homeowners would have assumed the value of their property would rise in an assessment. Property values are not regularly reassessed in Westchester County, therefore “someone who lives in a community in a house that was built in 1965, that house was probably never reassessed,” unless, says Waitkins, the homeowner has opened a new building permit.

The business of representing homeowners in assessment grievances depends on volume, since many cases are deemed to be fairly assessed, many cases are dismissed for lack of evidence. “When you throw a whole bunch of stuff against the wall,” says Waitkins, “some of its going to stick.”

The more time consuming cases, where the homeowner rejects the county’s reassessed value of their home, are known as Small Claims Assessment Reviews, and are something similar to arbitration, except instead of a judge being present to hear the case, there is an attorney contracted by the state.

Last year Cortlandt had 410 Small Claims Assessment Reviews, which amounted to about 10 day-long visits to court for Waitkins. Some of the revenue lost by falling assessments is offset by assessments which rise, caused by the addition of a swimming pool for example. New construction, such as a condominium complex being built, can also offset the revenue lost by falling property assessments.

Cortlandt raised taxes by 2.4 percent last year, to make up for some lost revenue. According to Waitkins however, his goal is to maintain “a fair and equitable role, if somebody proves that they’re aggrieved and they’re over-assessed, we fix it.

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